BRINGING ANCIENT BEASTS INTO THE CLASSROOM AND THE CLASSROOM TO THE ANCIENT BEASTS

Between 2015 and 2017, the Museums of Western Colorado, in conjunction with Chevron, School District 51, the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Colorado Canyons Association, assembled nearly a dozen paleontology education kits that brought the ancient monsters that once roamed the landscape of western Colorado into the classroom. These kits included professional-grade replicas of specimens found in the local area along with the real remains of these strange creatures in the form of original fossil bone fragments, teeth, and shells. Students who used these kits during the 2016-2017 school year were ecstatic! The kits were so well-loved that the Museums needed to revise their check-in/check-out protocols in response to their popularity. This also prompted the creation of additional kits in response to the initial kits' successes. Currently there are several Museums-derived kits, many of which have been adapted beyond the scope of the original kits to fit with specific needs. Regardless, the core mission of each kit remains the same; standards-based education for 4th, 7th, and high-school-level students focused around fossils found within the county, specifically within McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

The materials themselves that the students handled came from many extinct taxa from the deep past of Mesa County, Colorado. In all large kits the skull of the supreme Jurassic predator, Allosaurus, was included. All kits included sharp, serrated teeth from its horrifying mouth to entice students to learn more about its diet and feeding preferences. The "cow of the Jurassic," Camarasaurus, was utilized in all kits to showcase tooth wear and replacement. Students would then take a field trip to the fossil carcass of a Morrison sauropod, where they could stand side-by-side with the fallen giant. It is only then that the students truly appreciate the depth of time and their place in the universe.