23 New Challenges in Paleontological Education

Thursday, 4 April 2002
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

THE POWER OF PALEONTOLOGY

Paper number: 23-8
Program: SYMPOSIA SESSIONS
Time: 10:20 AM – 10:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

Paleontology has a tremendous amount of appeal to the young and old alike, be it in books, museums or movies. Once a serious interest develops, it usually results in a life-long commitment to the subject. Paleontology is either a glorious rapture or excruciatingly dull and boring, depending on how it is presented. Our challenge is to teach paleontology to at-risk inner city youth, develop a program to supplement high school earth science classes which meets MN state standards, train these students to work in the Science Museum of Minnesota's paleontology lab as paid assistants. Once trained, they are eligible to participate in week long field excursions in the badlands of western ND.

The successes that we have achieved are noteworthy and are directly attributed to paleontology. We have used paleontology as a vehicle to improve student reading skills, to help train teachers and team leaders and to retain over 95% of the students in the program. The Science Museum of Minnesota's Youth Science Center Field School is unique in that we are able to provide a hands-on environment for students in the museum, as well as in the field in the Little Missouri National Grasslands of western ND. Paleontology is a powerful tool; we would like to share our successes with you.