Research-based geology and paleontology education for elementary- and secondary-school students

Fifth and sixth graders at Hancock Field Station, Fossil, Oregon, participate in hands-on, long-term research projects designed to provide students with an understanding of scientific processes and concepts. Students participating in the Slanting Leaf Beds Project systematically collect paleobotanical specimens from a well bedded, lacustrine tuff in the Oligocene John Day Formation, Oregon, and, guided by field-station instructors, develop questions and hypotheses, collect and test data, and formulate conclusions. The project provides students with hands-on experience, reveals basic geologic and palaeontologic principles, exposes students to the scientific process, illustrates strengths and weaknesses of scientific inquiry, and provides experience observing, interpreting, integrating, and presenting information in a way few other teaching techniques provide. -from Author