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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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Read that title and imagine a cheesy 80's TV commercial from your local furniture store lol We booked 4 more programs which means at least 130 more free fossil start kits will end up in the hands of local kids We received a fantastic donation from @Flx of some dinosaur bones, including some chunkasaurus bones. Carter and I decided to match that so we donated some chunkasaurus bones from our Jurassic purchase. We can now mix in dinosaur bones for the kids which is really pretty cool. It is an awesome feeling to see the kids react to getting fossils. It makes all the hard work well worth it. My best guess right now is that by the end of the school year, we will have provided education for over 1,000 kids and given away 500 free fossil kits. We do not have the supplies to give away fossils at the large school wide presentations but that gives us a goal to work towards. Another huge thank you to all who have donated fossils and helped us with knowledge and support. We could not do this without all of you !

Yesterday we knocked out our first Dinosaur Rock education program, tomorrow we do our first 3 Sharks Through Time education program. Unlike Monday when I was pretty nervous about our first program ever, I am relaxed and ready to talk about shark adaptations over 400 million years. We have nice fossil displays, the science is strong, and FREE shark tooth laden fossil starter kits. A HUGE thank you goes out to all who donated. Those donations are getting into the hands of kids We will hand out 100 fossil kits tomorrow and by the end of our first official week of operation, close to 150 fossil starter kits will be in the hands of local elementary students. That is not a bad first week at all.

I have detailed our shark education program in previous posts but I forgot the best part. Fossils on Wheels has around 350-400 shark teeth that will be given away to kids. All of these come from donations. My son and I have donated around half and the rest have come from donors on TFF, who we have thanked in previous posts. These are really my favorite fossils because they serve a higher purpose. Getting kids interested in science, natural history, fossils and of course, SHARKS !!! I write a lot in these posts but the core of what we do is summarized above. This is fun and we are feel lucky to be doing this. The donations from TFF members are allowing us to do this and the kids will know it. Thanks to donations of marine invertebrate fossils, these teeth are going to become fossil starter kits with other fossils mixed in. The pictured below are some of the fossils. Some STH mako teeth and about 100 Squalicorax teeth are not in the picture because they are in my laundry room at the moment. Tomorrow, I start bagging these and putting together information cards so I wll know exactly how many fossil start kits we will have in a day or two. We have a nice mix Moroccan Squalicorax, Sand Tiger teeth and Otodus teeth, a significant number of STH mako teeth, teeth from a few smaller STH shark species, a few Ptychodus, and a few Goblin Shark teeth. We are trying to make sure we give away teeth from species we cover in the presentation. THANK YOU FOSSIL FORUM MEMBERS for helping us make this happen