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Joint 52nd Northeastern Annual Section / 51st North-Central Annual Section Meeting - 2017

Paper No. 15-3
Presentation Time: 2:10 PM

THE BELGRADE PALEOBLITZ: A PILOT PROJECT TO ENGAGE AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS


PEREZ, Victor J.1, LEDER, Ronny M.2, LUNDGREN, Lisa M.3, ELLIS, Shari2, DUNCKEL, Betty A.4 and CRIPPEN, Kent J.5, (1)Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, (2)Florida Museum of Natural History, Vertebrate Paleontology Department, Dickinson Hall, 1659 Museum Rd., PO Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611, (3)College of Education, School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida, 2403 Norman Hall, PO Box 117048, Gainesville, FL 32608, (4)Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, PO Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611, (5)College of Education, School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida, 2403 Norman Hall, PO Box 117048, Gainesville, FL 32611, victorjperez@ufl.edu

Paleontology is an interdisciplinary field that attracts a range of individuals, from hobbyists to professionals. A primary goal of the NSF-funded FOSSIL Project is to establish a unified community of paleontologists and promote best practices in the field. The Belgrade PaleoBlitz was a pilot effort to meet these goals by guiding participants through the museum curation process via a rapid two-day immersion. The objectives of the PaleoBlitz event were to: 1) educate participants in best practices associated with the museum curation process, and 2) catalog specimens collected from the Belgrade Mine into the Florida Museum of Natural History vertebrate paleontology collections. These objectives seek to find a balance between educating participants and contributing to science. A pre-event application dispersed to amateur paleontology clubs throughout the United States determined applicants’ baseline content knowledge and practices. To facilitate learning and promote networking, we selected 13 participants who varied in expertise from six different paleontology organizations. Immediate and delayed post-event surveys assessed acceptance and implementation of best practices, confidence related to specific aspects of the museum curation process, and expansion of individuals’ personal paleontology network. Responses showed that all participants made changes to their existing collections, felt more confident in specific aspects of the museum curation process, and had continued connections with other participants after this event.

Session No. 15

T6. FOSSIL Collaborations II: Enhancing Paleontology through Professional and Amateur Partnerships
Sunday, 19 March 2017: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
Conference Center A, Conference Level (Omni William Penn Hotel)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 2
doi: 10.1130/abs/2017NE-291232
© Copyright 2017 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
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