Smithsonain Dinosaurs, Part 2
It all began with an honors option project in Fall 2007. Alyce DiLauro and Teron Meyers were enrolled in EARTH 150--Dinosaur Extinctions and Other Controversies. The scholars completed an honors option project in the course. At the suggestion of Dr. Guertin, they documented the dinosaur type specimens at the Smithsonian Institution through the creation of an enhanced podcast. (see blog posting)
In Spring 2008, Alyce and Teron presented their podcast and a poster at the Eastern Colleges Conference of Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Society). The scholars received comments and valuable feedback on the information and presentation of material in the podcast.
One would think that the project would certainly have been done-and-over with by this point--the honors option project ended in the fall, and a conference presentation was given in the spring. However, Teron and Alyce did not want to end there! Based upon the feedback they received at the conference, they decided to redo the project during the summer--not for academic credit, but to improve upon their original project. Little did they know that their summer journey would be filled with significant opportunities!
Dr. Guertin knows the dinosaur collections manager at the Smithsonian, Dr. Michael Brett-Surman. As Teron and Alyce wanted to take some additional photos and record some video of the dinosaurs, a trip was arranged for the students to receive a private tour of the dinosaur hall before it opened to the public in the morning, and then take a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections. To aid with collecting notes and data, scholar Jen Choi joined the group for the trip.
The story now takes many interesting turns. For example, Teron and Alyce learned of Jen's artistic talents, and Jen is beginning to sketch some of the dinosaurs on display. Teron and Alyce also learned that the dinosaur hall will soon be closing for at least five years for renovations. With significant changes taking place in the dinosaur hall, the group decided to collect as much information as possible to officially document the mounts and displays with the hope of creating several short videos that can be viewed by others.
Teron and Alyce went back to work to redo their initial dinosaur type specimen podcast. It is now a video that can be viewed in YouTube, and is part of the K-12 educational content in Penn State's iTunes U channel! Stay tuned as these scholars continue to document the dinosaurs.
You can view their video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNHN37USL1E
On left: Alyce, Jen, and Teron posing with a Triceratops skull outside in front of the Smithsonian. On right: Teron, Alyce, and Jen with Dr. Michael Brett-Surman in the type specimen room touching a type skull of a saber-toothed cat.
