Welcome Teachers!

This section of the Fossil Finders website is set up to provide teachers with support in involving their classrooms in the Fossil Finders investigation. Registration information for the Summer Professional Development Session for teachers on implementing inquiry-based instruction and the Fossil Finders investigation can be found here. The Fossil Finders Curriculum and a Pedagogical Overview of the curriculum can also be accessed from this page.

Teachers can contact scientists at the Paleontological Research Institute with questions related to the Fossil Finders investigation through the Ask-a-Scientist form on this page. They can also access responses from scientists using the Ask-a-Scientist FAQ’s link.

This section also hosts a Teacher to Teacher Bulletin Board for teachers to share their experiences with conducting the investigation in their classrooms.

During the summer of 2008 the first Pilot group of teachers who serve students from grades 5 through 9 from across New York State, participated in the project. Teachers visited several outcrop sites in upstate New York, found fossils, and learned to identify and measure them. One teacher said,

“The fieldwork helped to connect the information and make it more concrete.” Another teacher said, “I would have never thought that learning about fossils could be so much fun.”

During the summer of 2009 we will be accepting 20 applicants from across the country.