Get a free trial until June 30, 2026!
New members get full access to our science units, hands-on activities, mini-lessons, & more!

New members get a full, free trial through June 2026!
This Mystery is out of date! Please proceed to Animals Through Time to see the updated version.
Back > Share
Can you outrun a dinosaur?
Animals Through Time Unit | Lesson 3 of 3
Back > Share

Can you outrun a dinosaur?

Animals Through Time Unit | Lesson 3 of 3
Scroll for prep
Video trouble?

Discuss: What can you figure out about these two animals, just by looking at their footprints? (For hint, see next slide.)

footprints

Hint: You can tell a few different things. For example, you can tell whether the animal walks on two legs or four legs. You can also tell how many toes and what shaped feet the animal had.

Reveal answer

footprints

Video trouble?

Discuss: Which ostrich do you think was moving faster? How do you know?

OstrichFootprints

Quick Practice before the next video: Look at this image and decide: Where was Pat walking? Where was Pat running? Why do you think that? (Answer on next slide.)

MapWalkingQuestion

Answer:

Map-AnswersToDiscussionQuestions

Video trouble?

Discuss: Here are CeeLo’s footprints when he was running his fastest. How could you figure out if you could run faster than CeeLo?

CeeLoFootprints

Reveal answer

Video trouble?
🎉 That’s it for this lesson! How did it go?
Sign up now for more great lessons!
Sign up
# Extensions
Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the Exploration and Activity you just completed.

Image & Video Credits

Mystery Science respects the intellectual property rights of the owners of visual assets. We make every effort to use images and videos under appropriate licenses from the owner or by reaching out to the owner to get explicit permission. If you are the owner of a visual and believe we are using it without permission, please contact us—we will reply promptly and make things right.

Exploration
running near water by MATHIAS, M H , used under CC BY
posing by footprint by RRNeal
size comparison by Zachi Evenor , used under CC BY
T-Rex drawing by Nobu Tamura , used under CC BY-SA
long neck skeleton by Everything is Fiction
size chart by Conty , used under CC BY
footprint fossils by James St. John , used under CC BY
Coelophysis by Matt Celeskey , used under CC BY-SA
footprint fossil up close by Tui Snider
footprints in mud by R.T. Bird
Coelophysis size chart by Petrified Forest , used under CC BY
fossil foot drawing by Taylor Made Fossils
fossil footprints by The Natural American
lion by SA Star Tours
cat in snow by Rosana Prada , used under CC BY
ostrich by 7naturalwonders
Credits

Featured Reviews

“My students loved the opportunity to "outrun" a dinosaur, I love the connection this lesson had with mathematics!”
· Christine · Teacher
“The kids loved trying to outrun a dinosoar. They even wanted to do it on their free time later in the day and challenge each others best!”
· John · Teacher
“The students love the ability to interact. I love the ease of these lessons for the teachers- plus the content is rich!”
· Kristin · Teacher
“This lesson was so engaging for my students. They loved seeing if they could outrun a dinosaur. I have had a lot of feedback from parents as well about students' excitement and ability to recall what the lesson was about. ”
· Emily · Teacher
“The kids absolutely loved this lesson! It was very simple and required absolutely no extra money to be spent. Thank you so much for this lesson, not only did they learn how to properly graph but they thought it was so cool to know they ran faster than a Cee Lo!”
· Jasmine · Teacher
“I was concerned about the activity but the directions were clear to both myself and students and it was easy to manage. Thanks for such an engaging lesson that integrated science and math concepts (graphs)!”
· Laura · Teacher
“This was one of the favorites so far! I heard constant giggling and laughing while my boys chose and named designer dog breeds :) We are enjoying these courses sooo much. I can't thank you enough for offering this one year free to us. It's something I likely wouldn't have paid for without trying because so many science curriculums have not worked out for us. I'm pretty sure we will be recurring customers from this point out :)”
· Lisa · Homeschooler
“The dinosaur race activity was so awesome. My two boy runners were very cocky that they would outrun Cee-Lo, but it was my girl who actually did it.”
· Kevin · Teacher
“That was awesome! I would give it 6 stars! - 3rd Graders”
· Kate · Teacher
“The kids loved seeing how their footsteps compared to Cee Lo's and the mathemical application was relevant to our math standards.”
· Lorena · Teacher
“My kids loved pretending they were getting eaten by a dinosaur! Some of them got adventurous and decided to see how far they could stretch their legs and even moved "Ce-Lo's" feet. I did this at a large scale instead of small scale. All my kids participated. ”
· Brooke · Teacher
“Perfect blend of info and activity. Always a crowd pleaser :-) ”
· Erika · Teacher
“The kids working together to track their footprints and help each other measure. They loved figuring out if they were faster than a Trex!”
· Miranda · Teacher
“Most of the kids beat CeeLo - which was a lot of fun for them. The graphing just added another element to the activity. Thank You!”
· · Teacher
“The students were very excited to hear if they going to be eaten or get away from a T-Rex, or get trampled over be a Triceratops. Would be possible to add how fast a Velosaraptor is? Velosaraptor seem to have been the second most popular dinosaur among the students.”
· Dorothy · Teacher
“The kids loved this. Of course they all wanted to see if they could outrun a dinosaur so as they lined up they got to take a step!”
· Dianne · Teacher
“I had to extend the activity so all of the students could be "the runners" it was awesome! They had great discussions and the step-by-step directions for completing the graph were very helpful for students who might have struggled. ”
· Dawn · Teacher
“The activity. I like how the video showed how to perform the activity and then how to fill out the worksheet. My students loved seeing if they could outrun a dinosaur.”
· Stephanie · Teacher
“The kids loved the part where they got to see if their classmates could outrun the different dinosaurs. I loved that they had to graph the data to find out!”
· Kristina · Teacher
“practical activity was brill!”
· Elizabeth · Homeschooler
“My students thought it would be easy to outrun a dinosaur until we did the exploration. Of course, everyone wanted to try, so I left up the track for an extra day. When students finished their morning responsibilities, they could measure their strides. This was a huge hit!”
· Susan · Teacher
“We needed more "control" as a class for step sizes -- walking, running, head-start, etc. But it made a great conversation about variables, controls in an experiment, etc. Fun lesson!”
· Kim · Teacher
“Setting up teams and letting EVERYONE take a turn at each job. Out of their seats! Running around!! On-Task!!!”
· John · Teacher
“Students did NOT have prior knowledge about teeth. I was surprised but it really resonated with them.. Plus Dinosaurs in general is a high interest subject in elementary!”
· Dawn · Teacher
“We loved the lesson and the activity. We were pleasantly surprised that 2 out of 3 students could outrun a dinosaur. I had the students help me map out and measure the footprints before we began the experiment. ”
· Jill · Teacher
“This was amazing. My students have never had so much, and gotten so excited during a science lesson. This program continues to blow me away. Perfect.”
· Brandon · Teacher
“My daughter said the best part was the race with Cee Lo. measuring and graphing the results really helped tie in her math skills. ”
· Natasha · Homeschooler
“Oh Man! They loved setting up CeeLo's footprints and conducting the experiment to see if they could outrun a dinosaur. This was an excellent activity and one that my students were so excited about!”
· Kelly · Teacher
“Students had a great time measuring their strides, and calculating MPH! What a blast! We would all get eaten! Ha....”
· Cathy · Teacher
“Great activities to go with this! Not a lot of prep work, easy for kids to understand, quickly and thoroughly taught the concepts. And I also really like the link to the Be a Sleuth activity at the end.”
· Stacey · Homeschooler
“My kids loved the part where they put the dino's tracks on the floor and tried to outdistance them. They even had to get their dad to try it when he got home.”
· Catherine · Homeschooler
“the kids love measuring their strides against that of a dinosaur. We only measured three students in the class, tall, mid sized, and shorter. But afterwards, during recess, all the kids were coming up to measure their own footprints against that of the dinosaur stride. All were glad they did not have to outrun a dinosaur.”
· Gayle · Teacher

Grade 3

Fossils & Changing Environments

Fossil Evidence, Behavior

3-LS4-1

Activity Prep

Print Prep
To view a revised version of this lesson, please click here.
In this Mystery, students will learn how a dinosaur’s footprints reveal how quickly a dinosaur was running.
Preview activity

Before class, you need to photocopy worksheets for students and tape printouts of dinosaur footprints to the floor in the right spacing. (We're calling this the dinosaur racetrack.)

For the racetrack, you will need:

For the activity, each student will need:

Activity Summary

Students will try to “outrun” a dinosaur by taking larger steps than the dinosaur took. Using a number line, students will calculate the “stride length” of their classmates. Using a graph, students will also figure out whether their classmates could outrun a stegosaurus, a Tyrannosaurus rex, or a triceratops.

Exploration

18 mins

Hands-On Activity

25 mins

Grade 3

Fossils & Changing Environments

Fossil Evidence, Behavior

3-LS4-1

Extend this lesson

Assessments

Slow internet or video problems?
 
Animals Lesson 3: Can you outrun a dinosaur?

How did the lesson go?
Terrible OK Good Great Terrific!

How can we improve it?

If you'd like our team to reply to you, please Contact Support instead.

Thanks for your feedback! If you have a question or need help, please contact us. Please consider sharing your review:

Sorry the lesson didn’t go well. We read every single review in an effort to improve our Mysteries.

Thanks for letting us know. We’ll wait to ask you for feedback until after you've actually taught it.

Thanks for the feedback! We read every single review in an effort to improve our Mysteries.

Is the video not playing properly?

Please follow these steps:

  1. Very rarely a video will fail to completely load in your browser. Try to reload this page to see if that fixes the problem.
  2. If reloading does not help, try our other video player .
  3. If the video still fails to play, open this video in a new tab and please let us know you’re having trouble. We want to fix this issue for you.

Close

How can we help you?

💡For purchasing info, see our Pricing Page

This episode is locked

This lesson is not included in your limited access.

View pricing

This episode is locked

Your membership is expired. The archive of past Mini Lessons is not included in your limited access.

View pricing