Mobile Fossil Teaching Sets
Donation protected
Recently I learned that I received the 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Canada to spend the next academic year studying the Upper Ordovician (450 myr) aged rocks in Ontario as part of my doctoral dissertation.
As part of this exchange program, I will be interacting with the Canadian community through volunteering at museums, public lecturers and talking with students at schools. To enhance these community outreach opportunities, I am working on constructing 'mobile teaching sets' which will highlight the wonderful Ordovician fossils of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Ideally these sets would have representations of as many different genera possible. Now to do this, I obviously need the fossils to display in bring with me.
I am looking for people who are willing to donate Upper Ordovician (Edenian-Richmondian) fossils from the Cincinnati Arch to this collection. Ideally these fossils would be of some decent quality in the sense they represent the taxa well. Some taxa (like Platystrophia ponderosa, Cincinnetina, Hebertella, etc) are pretty easy for me to find and collect, however some of the more rare taxa (various trilobites, echinoderms, less common brachiopods) are much more difficult. I already a number of donations being offered from the wonderful members of the Dry Dredgers and if any of you are willing to contribute in this way I encourage you to contact me with what you might donate so we can see where the need is!
If you think this project is a great idea but can't contribute any fossils because you don't live nearby and don't have any, or because you are attached to the ones you have (trust me I understand) or whatever the reason might be, there is another way you could help. As with basically any project, creating these mobile teaching sets will require some funding to purchase display boxes, generate information cards etc. To that end, I have set up this FundMe Campaign where people can donate to this outreach project.
As stated above, money will go towards items including but not limited too:
- Display boxes
- Informational Labels
- Informational Leaflets
- Additional fossils and preparations
I greatly appreciate anything you might be able to do to help, with it be fossils, money, spreading the word, or however you choose to help. Any extra fossils or money beyond what is needed for these displays, will be applied to other outreach initiatives including small 'fossil kits' which can be mailed to kids and teachers, development of Ordovician related creative products (stories, photo books) and more!
Most of this info is direct from my blog which will follow my Fulbright experience. Additional information about my Fulbright can be found there.
As part of this exchange program, I will be interacting with the Canadian community through volunteering at museums, public lecturers and talking with students at schools. To enhance these community outreach opportunities, I am working on constructing 'mobile teaching sets' which will highlight the wonderful Ordovician fossils of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Ideally these sets would have representations of as many different genera possible. Now to do this, I obviously need the fossils to display in bring with me.
I am looking for people who are willing to donate Upper Ordovician (Edenian-Richmondian) fossils from the Cincinnati Arch to this collection. Ideally these fossils would be of some decent quality in the sense they represent the taxa well. Some taxa (like Platystrophia ponderosa, Cincinnetina, Hebertella, etc) are pretty easy for me to find and collect, however some of the more rare taxa (various trilobites, echinoderms, less common brachiopods) are much more difficult. I already a number of donations being offered from the wonderful members of the Dry Dredgers and if any of you are willing to contribute in this way I encourage you to contact me with what you might donate so we can see where the need is!
If you think this project is a great idea but can't contribute any fossils because you don't live nearby and don't have any, or because you are attached to the ones you have (trust me I understand) or whatever the reason might be, there is another way you could help. As with basically any project, creating these mobile teaching sets will require some funding to purchase display boxes, generate information cards etc. To that end, I have set up this FundMe Campaign where people can donate to this outreach project.
As stated above, money will go towards items including but not limited too:
- Display boxes
- Informational Labels
- Informational Leaflets
- Additional fossils and preparations
I greatly appreciate anything you might be able to do to help, with it be fossils, money, spreading the word, or however you choose to help. Any extra fossils or money beyond what is needed for these displays, will be applied to other outreach initiatives including small 'fossil kits' which can be mailed to kids and teachers, development of Ordovician related creative products (stories, photo books) and more!
Most of this info is direct from my blog which will follow my Fulbright experience. Additional information about my Fulbright can be found there.
Organizer
Christopher Indy Aucoin
Organizer
Cincinnati, OH
