STIMULATING INTEREST IN THE SCIENCES: FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE AT A FOSSIL SITE

As the virtual world becomes the prevalent means of maintaining the attention of school-age children, it becomes more challenging to stimulate intellectual interests with raw observations in the natural world. A rewarding aspect of providing educational programs (K-12 age) at the Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park has been the response of students to the graphic nature of the fossil skeletons in an in-situ setting, and the curiosity that results from being exposed to the methods and techniques used by the wide range of geoscientists that analyze data at the site. This contributes to an increased interest in a wide range of disciplines beyond the scope of classical vertebrate paleontology. Students become aware that chemical analysis, isotope analysis, sedimentary structures, as well as biological disciplines of ecology, and pathology all contribute to the deciphering of information that play a role in an understanding of earth history… and may formulate a course of study for the formative mind and developing intellect.