Lake Jacksboro And Mineral Wells Fossil Park--A Call To Arms

[mikecable]

I just sent out the following text as an email to a number of people involved in K-12 education in North Central/North Central West Texas.

October 5th is definitely a go. We will be arriving at the Lake Jacksboro site around 9:30 am. We will hunt there until about 11:00 am, and then drive back into Jacksboro for lunch. After lunch we will go to the Mineral Wells Fossil Park and hunt until about 2:00 pm.

I will have at least two, and probably more guides. Any and all are welcome to join us from Region 9 or 14--teachers, parents, students, kids, grandkids, spouses, etc. There is a 3 buck fee (cash or check) at Jax. I'm expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 plus teachers from ESC 14.

I will be posting some pdfs on content, TEKS correlations and field trip hints tomorrow. I'll send you the link.

Just in case teachers compare notes, Shawn is providing a $100 stipend, van transportation if wanted (but not for dependents), and the three buck state park fee to STMs. Lunch is on your own. I will be providing door prizes to our teachers at lunch--mostly stuff that Dr. Kathy Ellins funded through the TXESS Revolution grant from the BEG, but some fossils that I've collected as well. If I can muster enough loot and booty I may have some for your teachers as well. I'll post you later on this. But of course you are free to do as you want for your program.

Tell Gwenna she needs to be there. I haven't hugged her in too long.

A wonderful collaboration between the TRC, the TXESS Revolution crew, Anson ISD, Regions 9 and 14, and Midwestern State University.

Mike

p.s.

Viva la revolución--Viva la TRC!!!

So now I'm looking for the "more guides" portion of the email. When I present this at conference I want the A wonderful collaboration between the TRC, the TXESS Revolution crew, Anson ISD, Regions 9 and 14, and Midwestern State University. part to read A wonderful collaboration between the TRC, the TXESS Revolution crew, Anson ISD, Regions 9 and 14, and Midwestern State University and the Fossil Forum.

So I'm looking for Texas Fossil Forum members that might like to help guide teachers and others through these two sites. You would have no assigned duties--just roam around and talk about your love of fossils and paleontology.

I'd love to provide a small stipend for gas and lunch, but that doesn't look like it will happen. So pro bono.

Gary is on board, but I may have 20-40 teachers this time, and I could use some help.

If you are interested, reply on this thread or by pm.

Y'all are the best.

Mike

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Sounds like a fun gig for the kids. But having been to both sites, in consideration of realistic hiking and driving logistics, do you think you are allotting enough time to collect more than 45 minutes at each site? Or would it be best to keep the same start and end times, but one site per day, 2 separate field trips? Just a thought.

[BobWill]

Hey Mike, this sounds like just my kind of thing. My favorite sites and a chance to teach a teacher. You may know Wes from DPS, an avid science teacher in Plano, also involved in outreach programs. I'll see him Wednesday at the Dallas Paleo meeting and see if he's interested too.

I hosted a group from the Memphis Archeological and Geological Society for a 4 day fossil death march last weekend and was joined by DPS and some folks from Houston on Sunday in 105º heat. I tried to convince them to go to Jaxbro to no avail so I've been wanting to go there and haven't been to Mineral Wells in a long time.

Dan, you may have a valid point but don't forget these will be normal people, not crazed fossil nuts like us. An hour or two at each site may be all they can stand of scratching around in the dirt for little rocks

I'm sure I can add to the "loot & booty" bag too if it's fossils you want.

Bob

[Ludwigia]

Too bad that our civilization hasn't reached the "beam me up Scotty" stage, otherwise I'd be happy to land on your doorstep! Have fun everybody!

[erose]

I may be game for this. Possibly make a longer day of it since its a long drive up from Austin. I would just get to the lake as early as I can, probably by 8am, then do my own lunch on site, then catch back up with the group at MW around 1. My first rule is that collecting time must equal or exceed driving time whenever possible.

Why have you set 2pm as the end time? I could do the entire day at Jacksboro or Mineral Wells. But I'm a driving fool and don't mind heading out at 3am and not getting home until well after dark.

Also if you want help with handouts or cheat sheets, I have started a few for the Paleo Society of Austin that could be used.

[mikecable]

Sounds like a fun gig for the kids. But having been to both sites, in consideration of realistic hiking and driving logistics, do you think you are allotting enough time to collect more than 45 minutes at each site? Or would it be best to keep the same start and end times, but one site per day, 2 separate field trips? Just a thought.

I took that into consideration. But this is primarily a trip to introduce the site to K-12 educators. I believe I have a realistic timeline laid out to spend 90 minutes hunting at Jax, an hour for lunch, travel to Mineral Wells, and about an hour of hunting at the Fossil Park, with an ETA back in Abilene around 4pm. These are teachers with a casual interest in fossils for the most part. Our 7:30 am to 4:00 pm agenda is already two to three hours longer than the typical Sat. workshop, and some will have up to two hours round trip travel time just to get to Abilene. The $100 stipend is an incentive (getting paid to hunt fossils is a good thing), but they are taking time away from family in many cases.

[mikecable]

Hey Mike, this sounds like just my kind of thing. My favorite sites and a chance to teach a teacher. You may know Wes from DPS, an avid science teacher in Plano, also involved in outreach programs. I'll see him Wednesday at the Dallas Paleo meeting and see if he's interested too.

I hosted a group from the Memphis Archeological and Geological Society for a 4 day fossil death march last weekend and was joined by DPS and some folks from Houston on Sunday in 105º heat. I tried to convince them to go to Jaxbro to no avail so I've been wanting to go there and haven't been to Mineral Wells in a long time.

Dan, you may have a valid point but don't forget these will be normal people, not crazed fossil nuts like us. An hour or two at each site may be all they can stand of scratching around in the dirt for little rocks

I'm sure I can add to the "loot & booty" bag too if it's fossils you want.

Bob

I would love to have you join us, and Wes as well. Any "loot and booty" is also more than welcome. Mike

[mikecable]

I may be game for this. Possibly make a longer day of it since its a long drive up from Austin. I would just get to the lake as early as I can, probably by 8am, then do my own lunch on site, then catch back up with the group at MW around 1. My first rule is that collecting time must equal or exceed driving time whenever possible.

Why have you set 2pm as the end time? I could do the entire day at Jacksboro or Mineral Wells. But I'm a driving fool and don't mind heading out at 3am and not getting home until well after dark.

Also if you want help with handouts or cheat sheets, I have started a few for the Paleo Society of Austin that could be used.

I would love to have you join us as well. Feel free to make your own schedule. The 2 pm end time is to get the teachers back around 4pm, as I wrote to Dan above. For some of them it will end up being an 11 hour day. If it were just Gary and myself we'd be willing to hunt til dark. We led this same field trip last year with about 15 Region 9 (Wichita Falls) teachers, and the timeline worked out well.

Mike

[Kevin Anderson]

I talked to Wes earlier this week and he is busy Saturday.

I will be up in Oklahoma on Friday and should be able to hit Jacksboro on Saturday, but I won't be going to the Mineral Wells park.