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A Temporary Halt to Fossils on Wheels Programs
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 36 replies
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Celebrating an anniversary and a leap day with fossils
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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. -
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
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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
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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
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- free fossils for kids
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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
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- free fossils for kids
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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
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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 !!!
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Capping a busy week with Sharks at the Gateway Science Museum
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 2 replies
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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
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Our first program of the school year complete with actual pictures
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 20 replies
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The Marine Mammal Program Will Debut WAY Ahead of Schedule
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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 !!- 5 replies
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Taking off the collector hat and putting on the educator hat
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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.- 8 replies
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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.
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Project Angelshark- conservation through fossil education
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 1 reply
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The Final Tally for Free Fossil Kits for Kids
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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.- 8 replies
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We need some suggestions for Triassic and Jurassic sharks to add to our education programs
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 10 replies
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A very successful note taking dinosaur program.
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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 !!!- 2 replies
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Sharks and 2 Dinos- our first triple program day
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 6 replies
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More programs, more fossil give aways and gratitude for TFF
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
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- 3 replies
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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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An opportunity for TFF members to help us create better programs
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
We had two really great Dinosaur programs this week. We have two more Dino programs and a shark program next week too so things are rolling along very nicely for us. I did notice this week that we are missing out on an opportunity to give a broader picture of the paleoecology of the dinosaur era. The kids yesterday wanted to see Pterosaur and marine reptile fossils. We had a chance to really explain the difference between those reptiles and dinosaurs because we have yet to acquire those fossils. I wanted to open this topic to TFF members because I respect the knowledge of fossils and the animals that left the fossils behind that our friends have. We need to round out our programs and I need to begin learning more about dinosaur age animals that were not dinosaurs. We do have croc teeth that will start going with us and I am putting together a display of dinosaur era shark teeth to keep in the dino program bin. Now that I have a better handle on how much material we can fit into an hour long program, I can tighten up the program and find a few minutes to cover non dinosaurs. This is where we need your help. I want to know what critters from the age of dinosaurs you think we should be touching on. What animals do I need to start looking into getting fossil representatives from and what critters do i need to study ? I thought it might be really fun to get the opinions of our friends and have the great minds here contribute to the material cover. This is open to all forum members so give us your thoughts and knowledge. Help us further our education goals by creating a more well rounded program !- 23 replies
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Today we debuted the Jurassic sauropod bones we picked up and Camarasaurus was the dino of the day. The kids loved the fused ribs and each kid got to touch them. We also passed around the Trike frill as usual plus some smaller Camarasaurus bones. This was by far our most interactive program yet and the students really responded. We ended up covering fewer dinosaurs but it did not matter to the kids. They were so excited to get to touch real dino fossils. This was a very informative program for me. The more of these we do, the more I believe that we need to keep adding bones the kids can touch. The display fossils are great but it is really the hands-on experience that makes the biggest impact. We are developing a niche as the dudes that will let you touch dino bones lol The best part of the program is always the end when we pass out the free fossils. Today was Goblin shark and Lemon shark teeth with bivalves and Gastropods. 26 students got those fossils plus we left some with the teacher for future students. 3 students that volunteered to help other students get to touch fossils were given Camarasaurus bone fragments for the volunteer work. Another great day of fossil education and making kids smile !
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A note taking and informative writing Dinosaur presentation? Yeah we can do that
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
We were asked to comeback to 2 classrooms we had done a shark presentation for and do dinos ! Very cool but the teachers threw me a curve. They want a program aimed at teaching kids note taking and writing short essay answers from the notes. This is quite different than just talking about adaptations or the geology of fossils. I happily said yes and now I have two weeks to plan an entirely different theme but this will help us going forward as it gives us another style of program to offer teachers. I am pretty stoked that the teachers though enough of our program to invite us back and have us help the students build some skills. Quite a compliment for a program just getting started I think- 8 replies
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Building the Dinosaur Program- Horseshoe Canyon
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in Member Collections
I am super excited to say we are adding a couple of fossils from Canada. Part of working on getting a 501c3 is making sure we operate within our own bi laws and working with any laws that govern whatever it is you do in your non profit. I saw a dealer with some Canadian fossils from the Horseshoe Canyon formation that came with a disposition from the Canadian government. I saw an opportunity to grab a few fossils that not only add something to our presentations but gave us legally obtained fossils from our neighbors to the north. The dealer was kind enough to work with us on holding a couple of items that were within our budget. There are some really interesting dinosaurs in Horseshoe Canyon and while we did not add anything rare or spectacular, I am quite happy with what we did pick up. We got our Ankylosaurus scute. We had been looking to pick one up and we were not finding anything affordable. Not only is the one we picked up from Horseshoe Canyon, it was quite affordable for us. I am not yet sure which Anky we will talk about in our program but either way this was a great addition. I think it compliments our "Zuul" tooth very nicely and the kids will really like seeing some of that Anky armor. We also picked up a toe bone from a Ceratopsian. The kids really liked learning about animals other than Triceratops so I jumped at the chance to add one from this formation. Like the Anky scute, the genus and species is indet but I am pretty sure we will talk about Pachyrhinosaurus when we show this fossil. It is a cool critter with a cool name. We talk a lot about Ceratopsians so this was an easy choice. We also added something really cool. We got a Dromaeosaurid tooth. When I purchased it, the seller had said it was from Judith River and labeled it as Dromaeosaurus albertensis. It is not from Judith River. It was actually collected from Red Deer River Badlands near Drumheller in Alberta. I am pretty sure it is actually from Horseshoe Canyon which means it is not Dromaeosaurus. The only described raptor from that formation is Atrociraptor. I will get around to posting better pictures and seeking an ID from TFF members eventually but for now am quite good with going with Atrociraptor for education programs. It was a pretty fearsome looking creature and also pretty different from the other raptors we present. Sure, I whiffed on Dromaeosaurus again but I am not complaining. It is another really nice tooth and we add another dinosaur to educate the kiddos about. This also gives us a theropod from the formation which rounds out the presentation nicely. I am pretty sure the tooth is also legal as it was collected in the 60's and has been in the US since the 70's. Anyway, here are the fossils minus the toe bone which I do not have a picture of yet.- 2 replies
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- atrociraptor
- ceratopsian
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