I have learned so many things in these two weeks! So many new things to take back to the classroom; activities that I know my students will enjoy very much. One of those will be finding and identifying shark teeth. When I sit in the Paleo lab with my paper plate containing Aurora sediments from the phosphate mine, and suddenly I find a cool shark tooth, I imagine what my students would feel when doing this and finding cool shark teeth. It’s just amazing how many different shapes and sizes of shark teeth you can find in a short period of time. We will be measuring these shark teeth to then analyze the data collected. I can’t wait to see what my students will come up with from this analysis.

“I am bringing a bucket of sediment to the classroom.” – We have been to the Phosphate mine, so definitely I would have to take them there, too, to see the whole picture of this research project.  It will be a great addition to this project to take them to the mine, and to the Aurora Fossil Museum, as well. They can dig in for shark teeth there, too.

My school was able to purchase a Dino-lite microscope camera, which is an incredible tool when working with shark teeth. It can take very precise measurements of very small shark teeth, and can also take pictures of them. I have gotten better in using it, with the help of Bucky, and will enjoy using it in the classroom.  We can use it, not only for this project, but can also use it with other projects we do at school. For example, seeing the morphology of Shad eggs, when we do our Shad project in the spring, and take pictures of them, and pictures of the whole development process.

I am taking with me a wonderful experience!