we will be staying on the educational sidelines a bit longer

[fossilsonwheels]

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 

[thelivingdead531]

I don’t know if this could be an option for you, and if it’ll work for grades that you’re used to speaking with, but my son’s second grade class usually does two weeks on sharks and since we were having to do online work and paper packets at home they had to condense it. We were given a link to a set of videos on YouTube that were really fun and informative about sharks. Maybe you could record a series of videos based on your program that could be available to teachers to use in the classroom. That way you can continue with your program until you’re able to get back into classrooms physically. Just an idea I’m throwing out there for you. I wish you the best in your program!

[FossilNerd]

I’m sorry to hear that you will still be on hiatus for a while. I know how much you enjoy the program, and by all accounts the kids do too! Hopefully you will be back at it sooner than later. Good luck on finding an option in the interim!  

[fossilsonwheels]

18 hours ago, thelivingdead531 said:

I don’t know if this could be an option for you, and if it’ll work for grades that you’re used to speaking with, but my son’s second grade class usually does two weeks on sharks and since we were having to do online work and paper packets at home they had to condense it. We were given a link to a set of videos on YouTube that were really fun and informative about sharks. Maybe you could record a series of videos based on your program that could be available to teachers to use in the classroom. That way you can continue with your program until you’re able to get back into classrooms physically. Just an idea I’m throwing out there for you. I wish you the best in your program!

We are actually working on some videos and possibly some education kits that teachers could get. Excellent suggestions. Thank you  

[fossilsonwheels]

17 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

I’m sorry to hear that you will still be on hiatus for a while. I know how much you enjoy the program, and by all accounts the kids do too! Hopefully you will be back at it sooner than later. Good luck on finding an option in the interim!  

Thank you and I hope for the same thing