BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA: MIDDLE-SCHOOL ICHNOLOGY

The senior author presented a workshop on ichnology entitled "Bambi meets Godzilla" at a conference for middle-school girls in Mobile. The theme of the workshop was science as detective work. Wall-mounted posters and hand specimens were used to introduce trace fossils and provide basic information about their study. The hands-on portion began with oral discussion about the possible makers of some traces. This was followed by a written assignment in which students chose illustrated work sheets featuring either traces or tracemakers. Using words and drawings, they inferred the origins of figured traces or described behaviors and resultant traces that they attributed to figured tracemakers.

A brief field trip to observe modern traces was to have concluded the workshop, but heavy rainfall a few days earlier flooded the field-trip site. A rainy-day activity was developed and tested later on another group of middle schoolers. In this activity, old footgear and water-soluble paint are used to make trackways on newsprint. The students calculate stride length, speed, and tracemaker height using standard formulae, one of which they help derive. Participants compare calculated and known heights in a follow-up discussion.

Evaluations of the original workshop indicated that all participants felt they learned a lot. However, some participants said they had only a moderately good time. Class participation in the discussion was high, but personal observation suggested that more hands-on activity would have improved the experience. Addition of the stride-analysis activity would have greatly increased the hands-on component of the workshop.