Education and Public Outreach

Girls Inc. Sciencefest, Girls Inc. Center, February 8, 2025. Lorena Jevnikar coordinated the IU Paleontology Collection education table at the annual Girls Inc. Sciencefest. Roughly 40 families visited the table. Approximately 20 specimens both modern and fossil were loaned from the IUPC to educate visitors about paleontology, evolution, morphology, etc.

Sciencefest, Earth Sciences section, October 5, 2024. IU Paleontology Collection loaned 30 fossil and modern specimens.

CBRC Graduate Student Supervisor. Lorena Jevnikar volunteered in the IU Paleontology Collection Fall 2024 semester assisting with the training of undergraduates in photogrammetry, collections management and curation, and collecting information for the CBRC Scleractinian Coral webpage.

Ryan Kennedy and Sam Couch – hosted 25 students in Dr. Polly Sturgeon’s Indiana Master Naturalist class in WRAZL, including discussion of Indiana’s native fauna

Sam Couch – coordinated two WonderLab WonderCamps (Animal MD and Bugs!) at WRAZL, reaching ~20 elementary age students for each event.

Charles Salcido - April 2024 gave a demonstration of the Center for Biological Research Collections photogrammetry equipment during Science Fest

CBRC Graduate Student Supervisor. Samantha Hartzell volunteered in the IU Paleontology Collection during the Fall semester assisting with the training of undergraduates in photogrammetry, photography, collections management, specimen identification, coral morphology, and creating the CBRC Rugosan Coral webpage.

• Matthew J. Koelbel – Letters to a Pre-Scientist: pen pal
• Danielle M. Peltier – Skype-a-Scientist
• Alex Zimmerman – Classroom demonstrations of online game-based learning tool teaching ocean acidification
• Anupama Chandroth - Letters to a Pre-Scientist: pen pal
• Anupama Chandroth - Wonderlab fundraiser exhibit 2023
• Polly, P. D. “Paleontology of Indiana: 500 Million years of Hoosier History”, IU Alumni Association Lifelong Learning program, 23 March 2023.
• Polly, P. D. “National Monuments in Utah: Dinosaurs, Science, and Politics”, IU Alumni Association Lifelong Learning program, 16 March 2023.
• Kat Sestrick – Letters to a Prescientist: pen pal
• Kirsten Hawley, Anupama Chandroth—Girls Inc Sciencefest 2023

WonderLab Museum of Science, Health & Technology is an all-ages, hands-on science museum in downtown Bloomington which regularly partners with WRAZL to facilitate educational experiences for elementary aged children as well as to create exhibits for their gallery. This year WRAZL hosted five episodes of WonderLab’s virtual program “Animal Hour.” This program teaches children about a variety of animal related concepts such as biology, ecology and evolution. WRAZL’s role in these programs was to provide material from the collection to support the educational messages as well as to show the audience what research in a zooarchaeology lab is like and to highlight the tools and techniques scientists use to study animals in the past.

WRAZL hosted a tour for WonderLab Museums’s summer camp, Animal MD. This camp was geared towards 4^th-8^th grade students and focused on learning about animal science while exploring related careers. This camp was composed of 20 children and 4 high school student helpers in addition to the teacher who was WRAZL’s Sam Couch. The Paleontology collection hosted WonderLab’s 2^nd-3^rd grade camp, A World of Bugs which studied arthropods both modern and extinct, also taught by Sam Couch. This camp was comprised of 20 children and 4 high school student helpers.  

Teacher’s Warehouse is an organization in Bloomington that collects donations of materials that may be needed in classrooms ranging from furniture to stationary supplies. MCCSC teachers can go to this repository to pick up supplies and materials they need for their classrooms at no charge to the teacher. WRAZL made a large donation of old material from the lab such as glassware and out of date microscopes.

Sam J. Couch – Hosted WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Animal Hour- You're HOW old?” at WRAZL on 7 April 2023.

Jess Miller-Camp – Toured the Paleontology lab for WonderLab Museum’s summer camp “A World of Bugs” for 20 2^nd-3^rd graders, 3 high school interns and the teacher, Sam Couch, to teach about the evolution of arthropods on 9 June 2023.

Sam J. Couch – Toured WRAZL for WonderLab Museum’s summer camp “Animal MD” for 21 4^th-8^th graders and 4 high school interns to illustrate how skeletal morphology influences movement on 23 June 2023.

Sam J. Couch – Hosted WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Animal Hour-No Bones About It” at WRAZL on 11 August 2023.

Jess Miller-Camp – Spoke in WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Dive Deeper- AMA: Paleontologist” on 6 October 2023.

Sam J. Couch – Hosted WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Animal Hour- Archaeo or Paleo?” at WRAZL on 27 October 2023.

Sam J. Couch – Hosted WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Animal Hour- How to be a Scientist” at WRAZL on 8 December 2023.

Sam J. Couch – Hosted WonderLab Museum’s virtual program “Animal Hour- Laboratory Exploration” at WRAZL on 15 December 2023.

IU Science Fest: WRAZL participated in IU's Science Fest, connecting with 66 visiting community members. Activities included the following:

• "What is Zooarchaeology?" used 3 known comparatives and an unknown sample for visitors to learn how to identify unknown elements using a comparative collection.
• "Dimorphism" taught visitors that it is important to understand sex differences in studied species to accurately identify archaeological elements.
• "3-D Modeling" showed the future of collections management and information dissemination by displaying the process of taking an element, photogrammetrically scanning it and turning it into a virtual 3-D model.

Girls Inc. Science Fest: K. Hawley and A. Chandroth participated in a Science Fest hosted on February 11, 2023 by the Bloomington chapter of Girls, Inc. Teaching materials from the CBRC were used to answer questions about fossils, rocks, and minerals.

WonderLab Museum's Dino Weekend: a two-day event in which paleontology was being celebrated with the Bloomington community. The purpose of WRAZL's participation was to show how extant descendants have changed from the ancestral species that were being highlighted by paleontological institutions who were also presenting.

Couch, S. Apr 8, 2022. Specimens lent to WonderLab Museum for use in their virtual educational program Animal Hour: Loco Locomotion: a discussion on flight.

Couch, S. June 10, 2022. Brought 22 children ranging from 4-6 grade to WRAZL for WonderLab Museum's summer camp, Intro Animal MD.

Couch, S. June 17, 2022. Brought 13 children ranging from 4-6 grade to WRAZL for WonderLab Museum's summer camp, Animal MD 2.0.

Kennedy, R. Nov. 11, 2022. Spoke to an audience in WonderLab Museum's virtual educational program, Animal Hour: AMA Archaeologist.

Miller-Camp, J. Nov 18, 2022. Spoke to an audience in WonderLab Museum's virtual educational program, Animal Hour: AMA Paleontologist.

Miller-Camp, J. June 3, 2022. Spoke to an audience in WonderLab Museum's virtual educational program, Animal Hour: Who's Who?: A discussion of gender in science.

Salcido, Charles (Writer). February 2023. When Theropods Went Vegetarian. Nicole Sweeny (Executive Producer). PBS Eons. PBS Digital Studios. YouTube series episode