IN-THE-FIELD, INQUIRY-BASED PALEONTOLOGY FOR K-16 AT THE COON CREEK SCIENCE CENTER, TENNESSEE

The Late Cretaceous Coon Creek Formation in Tennessee preserves an estimated 800 species of originally preserved marine invertebrates, swimming reptiles (mosasaurs, turtles), fish, a newly discovered pterosaur, ichnofossils and occasionally washed-in plants. The Memphis Pink Palace Family of Museums established the Coon Creek Science Center (CCSC) in 1989 at the type section ("Old Dave Week's Place") as a research and educational camp. K-12 student and teacher education programs by CCSC staff and visiting paleontologists offer field experience in all aspects of paleontology, including site evaluation, excavation and extraction, fossil identification, functional morphology studies, paleoecological reconstruction, and evolutionary history. The lightly cemented glauconitic clayey sands enhance fossil extraction and facilitate sedimentological and stratigraphic studies to provide a context for fossil studies. Programs use open-ended inquiry capitalizing on student-centered discovery and questioning. University-level students participate in research on-site. All visitors return home with their own fossil collections for expanded study and teaching.