Fairmount sixth-grade teacher Deanna Bloom was one of just 20 educators around the country to pilot a three-week, hands-on science curriculum unit called Fossil Finders in 2009. Now, two more of her colleagues have joined her in teaching the Cornell University-developed program in District 58.

Bloom participated in a two-week-long professional development workshop in the summers of 2009 and 2010 at Cornell in Ithaca, New York, to prepare for piloting the unit, which is structured around learning standards targeted by the National Academy of Sciences for fifth through eighth grade students. She shared her expertise with El Sierra sixth-grade teacher Patricia Incrocci and Hillcrest sixth-grade teacher Dana Murphy, providing them the training they needed to teach the Fossil Finders unit in their classrooms this fall.

“From training to teaching in the classroom, these staff members have provided an outstanding model of participation, enthusiasm and the ability to bring the Fossil Finders curriculum to their students in the classroom,” said District 58 science kit teacher Kathy Catalani.

Fossil Finders was designed to provide students with a unique opportunity to participate in authentic scientific inquiry. According to the Fossil Finders website, the project “engages children in classrooms across the country in an authentic investigation of Devonian fossils in an attempt to answer the question, ‘Do the organisms in the shallow Devonian sea stay the same during environmental changes?’”

During the unit, students learned about the nature of science and how changes over time can be observed in the geologic record. Paleontologist and retired high school science teacher John Catalani visited the three Fossil Finders classrooms to talk with the students about different eras and periods of time, as well as about finding fossils.

“He had fascinating information to share with our students,” Murphy said.

As the culmination to the Fossil Finders unit, the students classified and measured actual fossils, carefully removing them from bags and peering at them through magnifying glasses. They compared notes, referenced guidebooks, and assisted each other in identifying their fossils. Their findings were entered into a national online database, which will be used by scientists in their research.

“The kids got very excited during the two days that we got to look in 400-million-year-old rocks for fossils,” Murphy said. “It allowed students to take it to a more serious level, and they were fascinated that their input was going to make a difference.”

El Sierra sixth-grader Jackson Kamedulski said he enjoyed finding the fossils.

“We measured fossils that we found in rocks,” said El Sierra sixth-grader Abigail DeLaSanchez. “It’s fun to measure the biggest and the smallest, and scientists will use what we send them.”

Catalani said the teachers have each added their own materials to expand the curriculum and enhance the students learning.

“This is evidenced by the students presenting equal enthusiasm in embracing the curriculum, their amazing amount of retention and ability to express their ideas through the use of the mind maps displayed in the schools, the quality of their investigation results tabulated on the computer database, and the reception and thank-yous to science experts who visited their classrooms,” Catalani said. “Those thank-yous included a good share of proposals to continue with further investigations and hopefully to become professionals in science and education in the future.”

Last year Incrocci assisted with Fossil Finders by administering a pre- and post-test to her students to serve as a control for a study regarding the effectiveness of the unit. She decided that this year, she wanted to teach Fossil Finders herself.

“Hearing Bloom talk about Fossil Finders, it sounded neat. It seems to really convey the nature of science, such as observations and inferences, and hopefully gives the students an understanding of how science really works,” Incrocci said.

Murphy said she truly enjoyed teaching the Fossil Finders unit.

“I was so blown away by what we’ve been able to do with it,” she said. “What was neat to me was how the program builds on itself, from day one to day 15.”

Fossil Finders is funded by the National Science Foundation. For more information about the Fossil Finders project, visit www.fossilfinders.org.