RE: High School Paleo Curriculum

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Steve Brusatte
>
> I don't remember the webpage, but I
> believe there is a "Top 100" list, or something of that nature,
> of hilarious comments made by Dr. Holtz in his class at the U of
> Maryland.  Paleontology can be funny, too :-)
>
The page in question ("50 Things I Learned in Dino Class") can be found at:
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/50things.htm

A note: my class is PG-13.

Also, as one might imagine from my writing this, I am fine despite the best
efforts of nature to interfere with my SVP work.  (I wound up doing a
phylogenetic all-nighter on Tuesday).  Seriously, though, the university was
struck by a tornado, and although I did not see the funnel cloud itself it
touched down just one quad over.  We have a lot of broken trees down,
damaged buildings and cars, and (as the national news reported) we lost two
students and (according to the news yesterday) an elderly volunteer
firefighter passed away from a heart attack after a long night of helping
run rescue on campus and the surroundings.

A fellow faculty member, with the kind of wit that seems to strike during
hard times, mentioned that she's got to cancel her subscription to "Disaster
of the Week"...

I agree with many of the earlier comments.  Off the top of my head, the main
interesting points about paleontology boil down to:
* recognition that the inhabitants of the Earth have changed tremendously
over time
* discovery that fossils document the processes and pattern of evolution
* the ability to reconstruct the anatomy, habits and lifestyles of fossil
forms
* the sole source of data of the existence of mass extinctions

Most any topic within paleontology can be related to the above.  Obviously
you'll want to use dinosaurs as examples, but there are plenty of other
interesting fossil forms, too.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796


> -----Original Message-----
> Steve
>
> ---
> ***************************************************************
> Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
> SITE: http://www.geocities.com/stegob
> ONLINE CLUB: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/thedinolanddinosaurdigsite
> WEBRING: http://home.wanadoo.nl/dinodata.net/
> INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SITE:
> http://www.geocities.com/stegob/international.html
> ****************************************************************
>
>
>
> Make a difference, help support the relief efforts in the U.S.
> http://clubs.lycos.com/live/events/september11.asp