Encyclopedia of Life Blog

On July 25-26, The BioSynC hosted an educational workshop called “I Dig Tanzania!”

The two day event was the culmination of a new learning initiative in which groups of teens in New York City and Chicago teamed up with a group of paleontologists headed up by The Field Museum’s Assistant Curator Ken Angielczyk (Geology) and Collections Manager Bill Simpson (also Geology) to learn about evolution, paleontology, Tanzanian culture, and what field work is like for scientists. While the scientists were conducting their work in southwestern Tanzania in late June, the kids performed a virtual fossil excavation of their own in the virtual world Teen Second Life. The teens were in regular communication with the scientists by satellite phone and also watched videos the team uploaded from the field each day. At the workshop, the teens from Chicago and New York got to meet each other, as well as four members of the scientific team, for the first time in person. They also made presentations about their learning experiences to the public, watched two documentary videos about their work and the scientists’ work in the field, participated in behind the scenes tours of the Geology Department and the Evolving Planet exhibit, discussed fieldwork and careers in science with the team members, and learned about Tanzanian music in a drumming workshop that took place in the Hall of African Mammals. “I Dig Tanzania!” was a collaboration between BioSync, The Field Museum’s Education and Geology departments, and the New York-based Global Kids. Funding for the project was generously provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Grainger Foundation.

Here is the link to some pictures posted by Rik Panganiban from Global Kids, click here, as well as the blog that all the kids contributed to during the event.

Finally here is a short documentary video about the scientists expedition, enjoy!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Biodiversity Synthesis Group. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.