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Re: paleonet Jr High Fossil Activity?



Dear Peg,

Lots of folk have already sent some good suggestions but here's some info about programs we've developed that are slowly gaining extra exposure.

As part of IPC2002 we had a 3 day workshop for science teachers entitled "A Festival of Fossils" that focussed on the development of palaeontology programs for various school age groups.

http://www.es.mq.edu.au/mucep/ipc2002/fossil_festival.htm 

The program included basic preparation and replication techniques, using trilobites and brachs to interpret palaeo environments, recovering and identifying forams, a fossilisation experiment (the good, the bad and the smelly!), determining how fast dinosaurs ran, fossils in open ended investigations, using palaeontological press releases as a basis for classroom discussion and running a field trip for students.

Although the program was designed for Australian teachers there was much interest from some of the international delegates in what we were doing and an opportunity for teachers and scientists to interact.

We produced a booklet for the program and I'll gladly drop a copy into the post for you.  We hope to put some of the individual programs on the MUCEP website as downloadable pdf documents in the future.  Meanwhile some of these are finding their way into the pages of our local education journals.

Hopefully there may be some content that will help you come up with programs applicable to your local situation.

Cheers

Andrew



Andrew Simpson
Science Museums
Division of Environmental and Life Sciences
Macquarie University NSW 2109
ph (61 2) 98508183
fax (61 2) 98509671
email: asimpson@els.mq.edu.au
http://www.museums.mq.edu.au
http://www.els.mq.edu.au/BSc-BA/

"The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment"

>>> mmyacob@bgnet.bgsu.edu 11/08/02 12:53am >>>
Howdy all,

 

I am seeking suggestions for a fun and educational outreach activity for
junior high students (11-14 years old) that involves fossils and Earth
history.  I'm trying to develop something hands-on and investigatory
using the common Paleozoic marine invertebrates (brachiopods etc.), but
just can't seem to get inspired.

 

The purpose of the activity is to show students what "real" geologists &
paleontologists do, in hopes of encouraging them to pursue careers in
science.  The limitations are that the activity can't be more than 50
minutes long, and can't be outside/field-based.

 

I'd love to hear of any ideas or past experiences.Thanks!

 

Peg

 

Peg Yacobucci

Assistant Professor

Bowling Green State University

Department of Geology

190 Overman Hall

Bowling Green, OH  43403

(419) 372-7982