Relating Dinosaurs to Career Awareness

[Amado Narvaez <anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu>]

I'm trying to relate dinosaur study to a wide variety of careers and 
skills for the dinosaur unit at my school. I'm looking for suggestions 
about what the jobs and skills in the field, in the museum and elsewhere 
would be called.

The obvious career designations would be: 1) paleontologist, 2) 
geologist, 3) preparator. Are there any other "official" words for people 
who work in careers related to dinosaur study? I should have included 
"docent" above. Are there specific educational requirements for "docents" 
who lecture about dinosaurs to people visiting museums? Does a 
preparator's job include welding the support structure for mounting the 
displays?

In film and video of dinosaur hunters, we see them using dynamite to 
remove overburden, and we see them using jackhammers. Where do these 
people get their training in using explosives and jackhammers? If you had 
to enumerate all the basic activities on a dig, from setting the 
explosives to wrapping the freed matrix in plaster, what would they be? 
Do paleontologists have special training in drafting so that they can 
make accurate drawings of the way the skeletons looked before excavating? 
Have photography and video made that unnecessary?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

----- Amado Narvaez
      anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu