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  1. We haven’t officially settled on a new name for ourselves, my daughter is joining us this time (by providing crocheted stuffed sharks and tech help lol) and we haven’t worked on specific content or done anything toward getting Ed programs going for 2 years. But... We are doing an Ed program this month. Sharks for 60 2nd Graders. 3 classes. I am 100% confident we will do good work and enjoy it immensely even though we weren’t even thinking about starting again until fall lol A teacher contacted us and we’re doing it. It’s not even a teacher or even a school we’ve worked with before. The teacher had a flyer we handed out before Covid. We will have a few more opportunities this spring I think but due to school and work schedules there are limitations on free time. It’s great to get back to teaching kids about fossils and sharks with my son !!!
  2. Carter and I have decided that we need to make some changes to Fossils on Wheels. This decision is being made in part because Covid forced it and in part because we both want thought it was just time to do some different things. We plan on continuing to educate people about fossils as soon as we can but that is still at least 6 months away, maybe more. The biggest change is that we have decided it is time to retire the Dinosaur Ed programs. This is not a decision that was made suddenly. It has been brewing since the lock down started and it is the right thing for us to do. Much of the decision is based on a conversation that we had about the future of the entire fossil collection. The fossil collection that we use in our ed programs does legally belong to both of us but the time is coming when I will change that. The ownership of the collection will go to both of my kids with Carter being in charge of it. He was perfectly comfortable with the ever growing shark collection. He, like me, is a shark dude. He, like me, is just not a dinosaur guy. He really did not want to deal with the dinosaur stuff should something happen to me. My first priority in life is my kids and I need to listen to what he said. I give him a lot of credit for being honest and direct about that fact. I also give a lot of respect for saying he was ok with us simply saying he enjoyed doing the dinosaur programs but it was time for other things. Another important factor, though not the most important factor, was the feedback we got from the people who enjoyed the fossils. Kids and adults all had the same suggestion as to how we could improve the programs. The suggestions were always the same and revolved around a glaring hole in our collection. We lack large, impressive, cool looking theropod teeth and stuff like raptor killing claws. It is just a fact and we knew it was the big hole in the program. The problem was that in order to recitify that situation, we would need to spend a significant amount of money. You can not really bargain shop for large T-rex teeth or Allosaur teeth. You also can not bargain shop rare theropd teeth or claws from outside the US. Well maybe some people can but we could not. Neither one of us had any intention of spending the kind of money it would have taken to fill that hole. There were always going to be limits on what we had. The other factor is that we simply are not dino guys. We started with shark teeth and that is where will eventually end. The dinosaur collection was started simply as an educational tool. It was a way for us to spread the joy of fossils and to some solid education work. We are proud of what we did with the fossils. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 people got to interact with those fossils. They traveled all over Northern California and we had a blast doing it. It was one of the highlights of my life. I just had some much fun working with kids and most importantly, working with my son. We had the big conversation and factored in everything, we knew the time had come though to let others enjoy those fossils. The time has come for us to find homes for our road hardened, battle tested dinosaur friends. It is the right thing to for us and the right thing to do for the fossils that logged so much time being education animals. Even though they are not alive, they really were education critters. They worked for hard for us and for that we are grateful. They were packed up, put in the truck of the car, unpacked, touched and handled by hundreds of kids during the course of a day, packed back up, put in the truck, and then stored until the next time. The amazing thing is that through all of that movement and being handled so much, not a single dino fossils broke or got any damage worse than an occasional chip. Remarkable I think. We are also extremely grateful to the TFF members who helped us build the collection and gain knowledge. We made a commitment early on that we would not profit from selling donated fossils and we will proudly uphold that promise. ALL DONATED DINOSAUR FOSSILS WILL IN TURN BE DONATED. Our hope is that they can continue to help bring education and joy to people but not a single one of those will be sold. The majority of the fossils were purchased and those will be sold. Now it is important to not that it is not worth your time to inquire about rare fossils, large theropod teeth, or dinos from outside of the US. We have very little, if any, fossils that meet those requirements. The collection was designed to be mobile, interactive, and was largely the product of extreme bargain shopping. museum quality stuff this is not lol Plus I only mention this to keep the number of messages here about the fossils to a bare minimum. This is not a sales post. Covid did take its toll on Fossils on Wheels and we will no longer do dinosaurs but it is not the end of our education mission. That will continue. We may not call ourselves Fossils on Wheels. We did let our business license lapse and Carter thinks we should call ourselves exactly what we are, Two Shark Dudes lol We are still as passionate as we were prior to Covid but the game has changed. We need to change as well. This is not a sad event for us. We loved having the opportunity to take our little collection on the road and into classrooms. We are so thankful that we could do it and we look forward to a future when we are back at it. I want to wrap this up the only that seems appropriate...... THANK YOU SO MUCH TO OUR TFF FRIENDS THAT HELPED US. WITHOUT THE FOSSIL FORUM, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE :)
  3. It looks as though the entire 2020-2021 school will be on-line in my part of California. The CSU system recently made the decision to go on line only through the spring semester and I am sure the local school districts will do the same. Carter and I have have had many discussions lately about the current COVID related issues and possibly doing on line supportive education. The biggest impact our education programs had was the hands-on aspect and interactions with students that the hands-on experience afforded us. We both feel that we really will not be able to design an on line program that will come close to what we do in person. Plus teachers, students and parents are all trying hard just to develop the basic aspects of on line education so outside educators would not be a great help right now anyway. Even if there were in person instruction, we would not be in classes for safety reasons which we understand. We are working on figuring out how the sterilize fossils and how it may work should we get back into classrooms. We have a plan to present our programs in a way that will respect COVID safety standards in the state so the down time is being used to prepare for a possible return. We will continue on hiatus with no idea when we will resume Fossils on Wheels. It sucks for us but there really is not anything we can do. We still have a lot of shark teeth (probably close to 400) that are ear marked for give aways and we intend on resuming our work at some point but for now, we are still stuck on the sidelines. As always, we want to thank all of the very supportive TFF members who have helped us and encouraged us so much. I just wanted to offer up an update to let you know where are at. Or not at as the case may be lol
  4. The State of California released its guideline recommendations for in person learning to resume. It is pretty clear that it will be quite awhile before we will be able to return to doing Fossils on Wheels education programs. Likely the entire school year. Inviting outside people in to classrooms will not be high on the priority list. It is just a reality. It does suck but it is out of our control really so for the time being Fossils on Wheels will continue our holding pattern. I am working on some ways to distribute some free fossils and curriculum. We may do some videos as well but we know we will be limited in what we can do educationally speaking. I thought about maybe just putting a total pause to the collecting part for the time being but I find it so enjoyable. It can be a great stress break. I will look at the next six months as a chance to just be a collector. There really is not a reason to look at the collection and say "we need a piece right now" to fill a certain display or help craft educational programs. The vast majority of my collecting has been based around doing exactly that. I have done my bets to put a lot of thought into what we get and how we present it. That guides the collecting. We can take a different approach. I can just find a few fossils here and there that I want or that Carter wants simply because we like them. Carter likes Trilobites so now now is a fun time to start exploring that not as an educator but just because they are really cool. For our programs, we have some awesome Sauropod material. From an educational standpoint, we do not need a Diplodocus tooth or any Sauropod teeth really.. It jumped to #1 on my list. I had other plans and things ahead of it but that was based on the idea of possibly getting a fall restart. I would really like more Sauropod teeth because they are really cool so why not pursue a couple. If nothing else, it will get my mind off the fact that is a bummer that we will be on pause for a long time. Since we have had so many people who have contributed to these education programs, I thought I should let people know where we are at. We will figure out a way to keep getting the fossil message out there. I just am not 100% sure how yet but I am working on it ! Stay safe friends
  5. Unfortunately, Fossils on Wheels will be suspending our programs for while. We really do not have a choice as most of our programs are in public schools with a few being done for elderly care facilities. Even though there are no confirmed cases of the Corona Virus in Butte County, where the majority of programs are done, the reality is that closures of public institutions are imminent. I also work for a museum that is part of CSU Chico and we are preparing for some time off right now and it is not vacation time. Public health is the primary concern. We fully understand that and in the big picture, we are merely a small piece of supportive education. Carter and I have really enjoyed our first year of operating Fossils on Wheels. I am personally a little sad because we had some special programs up coming including our first anniversary program with the first teachers that invited us to do programs but this an issue much larger than us. It is temporary set back. Carter and I are committed to continuing Fossils on Wheels. Once things normalize, we will back at it. In the meantime, I am going to be one bored guy for awhile. Not much work, can not really travel. I can be productive though. Time for home improvement projects and lots of time with my kiddos. Plus I am bringing home a microscope and am going to get some micro mix. Probably lots of micro mix. For sure, LOTS of micro mix lol
  6. Today was not only a leap day but it was the 10th anniversary of the Gateway Science Museum. We were invited to take part in the festivities and provide an activity. We decided to bring some fossils that folks might not associate with leaping or jumping. We tied the leaping theme together with our fossils and talked sharks, whales, avian dinos, non-avian dinos, and marine mammals. The Cetaceans stole the show but people were digging the breaching sharks too. I was often busy with double duty, I’m a supervisor at the Gateway, so Carter took the lead. He absolutely nailed it. Proud dad today watching my kiddo be the MAN for Fossils on Wheels. Fun day and a great day for Carter. Good job kiddo.
  7. fossilsonwheels

    Dinosaurs in Yuba City

    We hit the road today and took our dinosaur fossils to Yuba City. We did two dinosaur programs for the second grade classes at Franklin Elementary. The kids had fantastic knowledge, asked tons of questions and were well behaved. Carter and I had a really great time and I think the kiddos did too. Thankful for the opportunity to reach new kids !! It was also our first chance to use the large Diplodocus bone and our Anzu claw. Here are some of the students checking out a big Diplodocus fossil while getting their fossils to take home
  8. fossilsonwheels

    Sharks in Paradise

    Carter and I spent the day at Paradise Ridge Elementary doing shark adaptation programs with some really awesome kids. I had previously met these kiddos while doing dinosaur presentations back in December. They amazing kids that lived through the Camp Fire and almost all of them lost their homes. You would never know they had been through all that loss. All three classes were respectful, very engaged, inquisitive, and very appreciative of the fossils we gave them. They asked so many questions and really wanted to learn. We were extremely impressed by the volume of questions and the nature of the questions. Carter got some videos and pictures for the website too which we should launch today or tomorrow. We even got a homemade thank you card
  9. Carter and I began work on a website for Fossils on Wheels which is pretty exciting for us. Our primary goal with the website will be giving teachers a chance to learn more about what we do and to be able to see what we do. We have three shark programs next week at Paradise Ridge which we can photograph/video and two dinosaur programs in early February in Yuba City that we can also photograph. We will also have testimonials from teachers that should let people know that we are pretty good at what we do. We hope to be able to make it easier for teachers and/or institutions to book programs via a calendar. It looks like we will be launching a week from today after we have some video. We will let you all know what it is up and running !! In another news, we are heading up to Paradise next week as I mentioned for the first program will be doing with our new shark fossils that expand the timeline and new science that I have worked hard on studying. This is pretty much the shark program I was hoping to have. We can cover shark evolution as it is currently understood, show kids even older shark fossils, and get way deeper into adaptations than before. I am really super excited about this and have worked extra hard to make sure every fact is checked and that we provide the best possible program we can. These kids have already had dinosaur programs so they know us and we know them which makes this extra special. These kids will also be getting additional fossils to take home. I think we are over 1400 bags of fossils given away but it turns out it is really pretty hard to keep track of since we give them away outside of classrooms too lol We are staying busy and I think our hard work is paying off in the form of stronger programs and better ways for teachers to see what we do
  10. fossilsonwheels

    A day in Paradise

    We wrapped up our 2019 season in Paradise California today. We did programs for all three 3rd grade classes at the new Paradise Ridge Elementary. It’s been a little more than a year since the Camp Fire destroyed most of the town and it was super cool to visit the new school. The kids were very sweet, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I think the 6 classrooms we did presentations for over the past two days represent our best work yet. Today was just special and so much fun. Carter ended making two of the programs despite a dental appointment early in the morning. This was a highlight for us. We also gave away 70 more free fossils. I took one picture which is one more than I usually remember to take lol
  11. fossilsonwheels

    The Magic Of Fossils

    We did three Dinosaur education programs at Shasta Elementary which has become our home away from home school. These were cute and excited little 2nd graders. After the first program, the teachers informed us of potentially problematic student. This kid had some pretty heavy duty behavioral stuff going on. The decision was made to let him stay in the classroom for the program. The program started and this students was at a table in the far corner doing his own thing. He made a minor attempt at being a distraction for about 5 minutes by tapping his pencil on the desk and making noises. The tapping and noises stopped. A few minutes passed and the student very quietly walked by me to his regular desk which was right next to me. He proceeded to get more and more engaged. He followed the class rules and was smiling the whole time. He was a model student through the presentation. He had some good knowledge and was behaving like the other kids just enjoying checking out dinosaur fossils. After the program, when we were done passing out the shark teeth for the kids to take home, he gave me a quick hug and said thank you. I told him he earned his fossil by following the rules. He smiled and with pride said " I did follow the rules." The teacher asked us to come back and do that again. He will be back in late January or early February. We will also be back in April or May. They will get sharks and they will get whales. Carter and I were both thrilled to have gotten through to all of the kids today but that one kid was the highlight of the day to us. 3 classrooms full of kids and they were all digging what we were doing. I have been an educator for over a decade so I know how to get through to tough kids but fossils have an absolutely magical power with kids. 80-90% of the kids we encounter stay engaged and all of them follow the rules to get their free fossils. Today was almost 100% as far as engagement goes. The fossils have such an impact and the kids really get involved. Tomorrow, I head off to Paradise to do programs at the site of the worst wildfire in California history. Carter has dental work to get done but tomorrow will be awesome. I worked with many students from paradise right after the fire in my other job so we are honored to be heading up there for some special kids. It will end our Fall season in a huge way. We did programs for 24 classrooms this fall. We gave away over 600 free fossil kits. For the year, we are over 1200 free fossils. We did a program for a retirement community. We traveled this fall. We reached new schools and new grade levels. I make this update with a great deal of pride. Thank TFF and all the members here who have been so helpful. You go to these classrooms with us
  12. fossilsonwheels

    A program for the older kids

    Today we did something pretty cool. We took our dinosaurs to The Inn, an assisted living facility. The science talk got deep and they were really into it. We gave them fossils and did our thing for an hour and a half ! The seniors were so much fun and pretty enjoyable for me just a few months removed from my fathers death. We got asked back to do the shark thing Fun way to expand our programs !!!
  13. Fossils on Wheels teamed up with the Gateway Science Museum to bring a whole lot of shark education to Chico this past Saturday. Our friend Tay Francis of the Gateway did a shark tooth ID lab inside the museum while Carter and I talked shark evolution outside. We had about 65 or so people stop by our table, mostly families. We handed out about 30 bags of shark teeth. Several teachers stopped by and they got flyers so we should get a few more programs booked from it. Carter did a fantastic job representing us as I also had to function as supervisor for the museum. This capped a very busy and exciting week for us. We added hooker Oak Elementary to list of schools we’ve done programs at with a really fun When Reptiles Ruled the Earth program for their 4th grade students. On Thursday we got interviewed by the Chico News and Review ! We had a lot of fun talking about what we do and why we do it. We have given away enough fossils to need a restock so we picked up a bunch, 250 or so. That should get us through the end of 2019. I even managed to find a bit of time to write up some material for up coming programs for 2nd graders working on their Dinosaur reports. Busy week but we had a lot of fun My son introducing some people to our sharks
  14. fossilsonwheels

    240 Bags of Fossils

    That is the rough number of students that got free fossils today We did 4 presentations for 8 classrooms at Turtle Bay Elementary in Redding. They all got Dino presentations and they all got to get their hands on Dino Fossils. At one point we passed a Nano tooth around the classroom and everybody got to check it out. Our largest program to date and at some point today we surpassed 1,000 free fossil kits given away since Feb 1 of this year. Pic 1 Carter showing the kids our big hunk of Diplodocus bone Pic 2 Kids petting Camarasaurus ribs Pic 3 Showin off the free fossils
  15. We did our first program of the school today at Marigold Elementary School here in Chico. The kids got some fun shark education and of course, free fossils ! As usual, the strange early sharks got a lot of attention from the kids as did the big Megalodon teeth but the kids really enjoyed learning about Bamboo Sharks, Angel Sharks, and Cat Sharks too. Pic 1 Carter showing the kids some Paleozoic shark teeth up close. This is always a big hit Pic 2 A student examining a rostal tooth from a Giant Sawfish. Pic 3 going over Guitarfish adaptations with the students
  16. It is becoming to Fossils on Wheels tradition to do a program way ahead of schedule lol I just booked our first marine mammal themed program This is about 5 months before I thought we would be ready but we do not turn down opportunities to do our thing in a classroom. The program is a look at the Miocene featuring marine mammal and shark fossils. We have just enough fossil material to touch on the West and East Coasts of the United States during this time. In fact, we have just enough material to do the program at all but we did this with dinosaurs last year and it worked out just fine. I am really quite excited to talk about marine mammals. This is something I wanted to do last spring but we figured Dinosaurs would be the program that got us attention. Now we can have a little fun and expand on what we can already do quite well. Carter and I can follow the same formula of scientific information enhanced with touch fossils. We have some cool material from STH including some nice touch fossils, a couple of decent Cetacean pieces from the East Coast and shark fossils. We may not have all the fossils that I would want to do this with but I think we have enough to give the kiddos a really great hands-on experience. We can explore some interesting Cetacean adaptations such as echolocation, intelligence, communication, and migration. We can discuss the different feeding styles of whales and why they super-sized themselves. We can balance these adaptations with shark adaptations and fun facts about evolution and theories regarding the extinction of Megalodon. This also gives a chance to really get into the fauna of Sharktooth Hill. I grew up a few hours from STH and it remains the only formation I have collected in personally. We use a number of sharks from STH in the shark program but this is different. We will focus on it while touching on the East Coast of the US. I am pretty excited to get into detail about a really cool part of the natural history of California with our local kiddos. It is going to be fun and I feel pretty confident that we can pull this one off. I have three weeks to work on the presentation plus the kids will get free fossils which helps. I will be nervous like I was when we debuted the dinos but that is not a bad thing. It drove me to make sure we did our absolute best in every presentation. I am excited and will update TFF on the how well this one is received since there are so many STH collectors on the here !!
  17. After spending the summer being more of a collector than an educator, it is time to get into educator mode. We had a good run in the spring and surpassed our own expectations. Carter and I set a big goal for this year. We want to triple the 700+ students we provided fossil education for last year. 2100 students is the goal for this year. It is going to take a lot of work but we are up to the challenge. We are already booking programs in Chico and we are starting to get some interest from schools in Fresno, Sacramento and Redding. We may end up traveling quite a bit more than anticipated this year. All of the programs we have on the schedule right now are from schools we did not get to last year too which seems a good omen. We are going to do 5th and possibly 6th grade programs this year in addition to the 2nd-4th programs. We added an Intro to Fossils program for the 2nd graders and the 5th grade program will feature some Miocene marine mammal material which I am super excited about. I think the bulk of the programs will be Dinosaurs but I am going to really push sharks this year too. We got our new displays done and added some really cool fossils to show the kids. I think the science is stronger this year as I really studied pretty hard. I even did some work on the Facebook page which I totally neglected last year lol I can not say we will give away fossils to all of the kids this year but we did restart the fossil give away program this year too. Right now we have about 200 shark teeth to give away so we know the first few programs will be covered. I should be able to pick up 100 or so more shark teeth in early October. We will do our best to get fossils to as many kids as we can and I hope surpass the 700 mark again this year however we made sure to tell teachers it is a first come first serve part of the program. The best part of the season will be working with my son all the time. He is out of high school and ready to work. The art is coming along and we will be razor sharp with the presentation material. I will not be around on TFF much so no more bad shark identifications lol but I will get updating our progress throughout the year including pictures ( we will have release forms !). I will not be adding more fossils except for give away stuff until December at the earliest so the collector in me is going to be sitting on the sidelines. That is okay because it is time to work We want to once again thank all of our friends on the forum who have contributed to Fossils on Wheels. You have all made this a much better organization and we would not be doing this again without the support we have gotten.
  18. fossilsonwheels

    New Dinosaur Education Displays

    We did a lot more work on our shark stuff this summer than dinosaurs but we did change how display the non touch fossils. We added a few new items too but stayed light on additions. First up is our updated Cretaceous North Africa display. We added a really nice theropod tooth that fits @Troodon ‘s Morph Type 4 Dromaeosaurid-like profile hence the label for the program. We explain the ID difficulties of fossils so for a tooth like this they know we are not sure of what critter had this tooth. I am pretty happy with how this one looks. We give a nice picture of Cretaceous North Africa from two different times. This is an important part of our program and we have some nice fossils I think. We also have two touch fossils with this section. A limb bone that we go with Spino as the critter and one is a theropod very that we use to talk about Deltadromeus.
  19. I was recently reading some studies on extant sharks to see if there was a way we could incorporate a more direct message about extant shark conservation in our future education programs. I was struck by the plight of Angelsharks and decided to make this special animal a featured species in next years programs. We have a great opportunity to bring some awareness to the conservation issues that these sharks face while doing our fossil education programs with Project Angelshark. Carter and I have decided to donate a percentage of each paid education program to the Angelshark Conservation Network in addition to featuring them in the program. We may also do some T-shirts to sell with proceeds going to the same cause. I spent many years working in wildlife conservation and we wanted to work this idea into our programs which is difficult when you are dealing with fossil education. The Angelshark is the perfect critter for us to start with because they extend back to the Jurassic and we should be able to trace their history in the fossil record pretty effectively. Some extant Angelsharks are critically endangered and they are not exactly the public face of shark conservation, even though they could be. They are pretty cute. We can make a small impact on the effort to save them by teaching kids about them. They are found in California and this helps us in our goal of connecting kids to modern species here through fossils. They are a specialized shark with some cool adaptations which makes them perfect for the education program in that sense too. We currently have a possible Squatinadae tooth from the Jurassic and our lone STH Squatina tooth. We need to fill in the blank spaces between the Jurassic and Miocene but I think we can accomplish that over the summer. As a collector, it seems an attainable goal to put together a nice collection of Squatina teeth without breaking the bank. One of our goals in splitting the program into two presentations was to work in more modern shark families and a focus on Angelsharks fits that idea beautifully. We are very proud of this idea and it is something we will repeat going forward. I feel like this is an excellent cause for us to take up and a wonderful chance to help the conservation effort for these sharks. I am pretty excited about this project. It combines some of my favorite things: sharks, fossils, education, and Carter's artwork
  20. 715 free fossil kits. That is the number. We have three individual class presentations left and a small assembly type for two classes. Adding up those students with the students we have already done presentations for put us right around 715 for the spring. Every teacher got fossil kits for future students to enjoy too. The fossils we gave away we are a combination of our own fossils, fossils we purchased, and a hell of a lot of donated fossils from TFF members. The kids knew that most of the fossils were given to us to give to them from very generous people. That is 700+ kids that got take fossil home and hopefully that inspires further interest in fossils and natural history. It has been such a great thing to see the kids light up and see them talking about it with each other and comparing fossils. I will spend most of today preparing the kits for this week. I have not kept track of the time I put into the giveaways but i can say MOST Sundays since early March have been spent watching golf while preparing these kits all day lol EVERY student and teacher got shark teeth. We mixed in fossils from the Devonian through Pleistocene. Kids got coral, gastropods, brachipods, crinoid stems, bivalves, sand dollars, croc bones, a few mosasaur teeth, and dino bone fragments plus other stuff I am forgetting. The fossils came from all over the world. I am really proud of this and grateful to all the members who donated. Our supplies will be completely exhausted and that is okay with me We made a difference. That WE includes our TFF friends. You are part of the Fossils on Wheels education programs. We could not have done this without you.
  21. We have wrapped up our shark adaptation programs for this season. We still have at least 5 dinosaur programs left, possibly up to 9 but sharks are done for the spring. We have an abundance of shark adaptations that we covered in these 1 hour long presentations but I am ambitious. Next school year, we are splitting the program and offering a much more comprehensive two part program. We can really deep dive on the shark science and work in more sharks. I am in the process of slowly adding some things to improve the program. We picked up a pretty little Caseodus tooth, some Orthacanthus playpternus teeth and Lissodus selachos tooth. I think we have found a Venustodus tooth and will finally be adding a Hybodus spine (fingers crossed). I am quite happy with the Carboniferous and Cretaceous shark material we have. We are well covered in the Miocene as well. There is a big hole though and I have decided to open this up to TFF members for suggestions. We have only a few tiny Hybodont teeth to cover the Triassic and Jurassic sharks. Splitting the program essentially means we would end the first program at the end of the Jurassic leaving the awesome Cretaceous sharks and the giants of the Miocene for the second program. The kids have loved the early sharks but I need to bolster the post Permian extinction sharks. Though mostly small sharks, these sharks are really important. There survival allowed modern sharks to develop. I want to present enough species not to just fill in space but to draw a far more complete picture of what sharks survived the Permian and how they did it. I know options are limited but we can do better than 3 small Hybodont teeth. We do explain the Xenacanthids survived the Great Dying but they disappear relatively quickly after it. This is where we need your help. What Triassic and Jurassic sharks can we and should we add? I figure we need an additional 5-6 sharks to cover. We do not need many but we do need to expand on this par tof the program so give us suggestions or thoughts if you know your sharks from this time. We love the ideas we get from our knowledgeable friends here. You have helped us craft thes eprograms and make them better so let's do that again lol
  22. I do not want to brag but I am going to just a little We did our note taking dinosaur adaptation program yesterday and it was really pretty awesome. Every kid in both classes took notes and they were among the most engaged students I have ever worked with. I already knew these kids from an earlier shark presentation so they were really pretty excited. They knew their dinosaurs but we were able to expand their knowledge and get them excited about new dinosaurs. We will be doing more these dual standard programs next year for sure. This was also the first presentation i had done where I got to work in information about the evolution of flight that came directly from one of leading experts on this subject in the world, Jingmai O' Connor. I had the pleasure of getting some information from her via email and it paid off in the form of more accurate information. This was also the program where our tiny Avisaurus tooth made its debut and it may be the last appearance for that tooth before it goes on a journey of scientific importance in the near future. Our program was so good yesterday that the students want us to come back to their classroom for round three before the end of the school year !!!
  23. Today is a big day for Fossils on Wheels. It is our first multiple school, multiple program adventure. Three programs at two schools, 1 shark and 2 dino programs. I am excited to the point of being hyper, which could also be due to too much coffee lol This is a great challenge for me as I have to rapidly switch gears from shark adaptations to dinosaur adaptations. It is a physical challenge as well just setting up the different programs. My son is at school today so it is all me though he will be with me for a program tomorrow. By the end of today, more than 100 students will have gotten fossil education and free fossil starter kits. It took me several hours yesterday to reload our supply of fossils kits as we have already given out more than I anticipated but this is a fantastic problem to have
  24. The response to our programs has been almost unbelievable to me. We booked an additional 5 programs this week and will be working almost non-stop until the end of the school year !! It going so well that I am now concerned about having enough fossils to give away to all of the students. This is not a problem that I had foreseen as I did not expect to be this busy. I am going to have to get more shark teeth and we had ALOT of shark teeth to give away. I am really happy about this. The first teacher we did a program for told us that we would be working year around in no time and it appears he was right. We will spend the summer putting our name out there with events like a Dino Day at the Library and an activity at the small science museum that I work for plus some summer camp gigs are not out of the question. As an educator, all of this fills me with a great deal of pride. We are nailing every program and each one gets better. The feedback has been awesome. The need for better supportive education is significant in our area and we are delivering that. I am learning on the fly about dinosaur fossil collecting and The Fossil Forum has proven to be an invaluable resource. I thank people here pretty frequently and this is just another thank you. There is no way we would be having this level of early success without the knowledge, support and donations of fossil material from the members. I am very sincere in saying we could not do this without you. Each kid that gets a program from us has taken home knowledge and fossils. We are making an impact and that to me is the reason for doing this. Carter and I are extremely grateful to all of you
  25. I don't know if this is a fossilized tooth or not but I thought it might possible be. It's a gentleman's watch fob mounted in 14K gold and dates from the mid to late 1800's. Teeth were commonly used in this fashion but I have never seen a fob with a tooth like this. Can anyone identify it for me? I spent countless hours researching but couldn't find another tooth like it. The tooth is approximately 3/4 inches long. Thank you so much for any help you can provide.
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