Archaeopteryx Fossil: A Paleontological Puzzle Activity to Engage Undergraduate Science Majors

Developing strategies for teaching undergraduate science majors about evolution and the earth's history presents student comprehension and engagement challenges. Pedagogical methods outside the typical Socratic lecture method are needed to allow students to develop a scientific and collaborative mindset that fosters taxonomic and geological concepts fundamental to understanding evolution. We created an inquiry activity to encourage group learning alongside promoting discovery and thinking like a scientist, which involved sequentially revealing only portions of an Archaeopteryx fossil in sections. The mystery taxa or puzzle activity was given to first-year college students. We quantified the activity using a combination of a worksheet for taxa and a post-activity survey gauging student perceptions of this activity using descriptive statistics and a Chi-Squared analysis. Student feedback on the activity as engaging was overwhelmingly positive (98.6%), with the majority of students reporting their increased understanding of the process of science for identification of fossils X2(1,n = 140) = 59.961, p < 0.001, and as a fun, informative method for learning about fossils, X2(1,n = 140) = 60.682, p < 0.001. By the end of the activity, most students could identify the Archaeopteryx fossil as a bird based on responses, particularly when the complete fossil was uncovered. This fossil puzzle activity can easily be modified to be used at any academic level (e.g., K-12, pre-K, university) to engage future scientists using alternative fossil specimens with specific morphological traits or incorporated into learning modules focusing on evolution, zoology, anatomy, or paleontology.