Last week I traveled to California to do pre-trip orientation (PD) with the 10 teachers who will be joining me in Panama in July. These teachers include four from Florida (Alachua and Hillsborough counties), two from new Mexico, and four from Santa Cruz County, California. I was also joined by my colleague Gary Morgan, a paleontology curator at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, as well as graduate students Catalina Pimiento and Claudia Grant.
We spent one day (Thursday) in orientation and the next (Friday) in classroom visits in the local schools. I also met with superintendents and NGSS resource people to discuss other upcoming projects. There is lots to share here, but one of many highlights of the trip was a visit to a Fossil museum designed and built by middle schoolers at Cesar Chavez MS. This was largely the inspiration of their teachers Jill Madden, who was a participant on the Panama trip in 2013.
Classroom fossil museum entrance, Cesar Chavez MS.
Fossil display in museum, including Panama and California marine fossils, and ID chart produced
by the UF iDigBio project.
UF biology PH.D. student Catalina Pimiento (center, first row, red dress) with Laura Beach's (white blouse, to left of Catalina) AP Biology class, Soquel High School, California
CAVEAT: All photos are for my blog. They are NOT to be forwarded or reproduced without my permission.
PS. I forget to mention in my initial post above then when we arrived (bleary eyed) on Wednesday evening in Santa Cruz, California our first stop was to attend a Science cafe led by a UCSC professor who works on endangered raptor birds. It was a nice way to break the ice with the new teachers. The local IPA was also good!
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