FROM LA BREA TO THE CLASSROOM: USING MUSEUM COLLECTIONS TO ENGAGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS IN INQUIRY-DRIVEN LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

The Advancing Community College Education and Student Success (ACCESS) program at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) partners with community college instructors to disseminate paleontology-focused labs in the Bay Area and beyond. In-person labs provide local community college students the opportunity to work with fossil specimens and their associated data, while a set of digital resources and alternatives, such as 3D-models of specimens, datasets, and interactive web-based tools, are available to administer online labs. Since its inception in 2017, the ACCESS program, led by UCMP graduate students, introduces paleontological concepts through open access and in-person labs, inspiring and increasing representation among community college students, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

In 2023-24, the ACCESS program developed a new set of labs that emphasize the use of Model-Based Inquiry (MBI) and Ambitious Science Teaching Strategies to highlight paleobiological phenomena. Designing labs that incorporate MBI take the student learning process into great consideration. Key content elements are introduced through overarching phenomena explained via the fossil record. These labs tap into students' curiosity, mirroring the researcher’s scientific inquiry process. Activities are spread throughout the lab to allow students to interact directly with the content. This approach fosters natural discovery, enabling students to actualize learned concepts and draw their own conclusions.

One of these labs, created in partnership with the Wolf RACE (Resource Availability and Competition in Ecosystems) project, is centered around Pleistocene predatory canids from Rancho La Brea in southern California. Students use fossil canid specimens to examine how paleontologists reconstruct past species interactions. This introduces paleobiological concepts and paleoecological methods, such as morphometrics, geochemistry, food web, and trophic level dynamics. To ease comprehension, modern examples and exercises precede the fossil-based activities. Concluding questions prompt students to consider these ideas to draw conclusions about why dire wolves are extinct. The design of these new collections-based ACCESS labs aims to broaden paleobiological literacy at the community college level, enriching students' understanding.