RE: paleonet Suggestions for intro paleo lab

[kaplanp@xxxxxxxxx]

Thomas,
What has worked in the past for me has been to give small groups of students a
few minutes to brainstorm among themselves, giving them a chance to think about
their favorite functional hypothesis for a group they've been familiarized with
(say, brachiopods) and to design a framework for testing that hypothesis using a
fossil assemblage or population. They enjoy designing their own goal, and they
feel directed in their otherwise "mechanical" duties of measurement . . .

 -Peter Kaplan