Welcome to the Prehistoric Journey Online Guide. This guide is
your companion to making the most out of your visit to Prehistoric
Journey with your students.
The Prehistoric Journey Educators Sourcebook was developed to
help educators prepare for a class visit to Prehistoric Journey and
to provide resource information about the history of life on Earth.
The Educators Sourcebook includes background on each of the main
sections of the exhibition, suggestions for how to explore the
exhibition, self-guided tours, and student investigations that can
be used to enhance your visit.
Note: The Educators Sourcebook was originally published in 1995
when Prehistoric Journey opened and does not reflect updates to the
Table of Contents (PDF | 1.6MB)
Early Life (PDF | 974KB)
Paleozoic Era (PDF | 4MB)
Mesozoic Era (PDF | 4.5MB)
Cenozoic Era (PDF | 4.8MB)
Self Guided Tours (PDF | 633KB)
Investigations (PDF | 1.7MB)
Glossary (PDF | 637KB)
This map provides an overview of the different areas of the
Exhibition Map (PDF | 374KB)
Colorado Model Content Standards
- Standard 1: Students apply the processes of scientific
investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate
- Standard 3: Life Science: Students know and understand the
characteristics and structure of living things, the processes of
life, and how living things interact with each other and their
- Standard 4: Earth and Space Science: Students know and
understand the processes and interactions of Earth's systems and
the structure and dynamics of Earth and other objects in
- Standard 5: Students understand that the nature of science
involves a particular way of building knowledge and making meaning
of the natural world
Colorado Standard 2: Life Science
- High School 2: The size and persistence of populations depend
on their interactions with each other and on the abiotic factors in
- High School 9: Evolution occurs as the heritable
characteristics of populations change across generations and can
lead populations to become better adapted to their
- Seventh Grade 1: Individual organisms with certain traits are
more likely than others to survive and have offspring in a specific
- Seventh Grade 5: Multiple lines of evidence show the evolution
of organisms over geologic time.
- Fifth Grade 1: All organisms have structures and systems with
- Fourth Grade 1: All living things share similar
characteristics, but they also have differences that can be
described and classified.
- Fourth Grade 2: Comparing fossils to each other or to living
organisms reveals features of prehistoric environments and provides
information about organisms today.
- Second Grade 2: Each plant or animal has different structures
or behaviors that serve different functions.
Colorado Standard 3: Earth Science
- High School 1: The history of the universe, solar system, and
Earth can be inferred from evidence left from past events.
- Seventh Grade 2: Geologic time, history, and changing life
forms are indicated by fossils and successive sedimentation,
folding, faulting, and uplifting of layers of sedimentary