Contributors
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| Fossil Kits and Lesson Plans: Over many years Robert Drachuk has contributed pictures of fossils and provided paleontological consulting to the Fossil Museum. He has generously contributed many fossil specimens to science. He has also long been a supplier to companies that sell fossil kits to the educational community. Recently, he decided he could produce better kits at a better value, and built his own website, Educational Fossils. Now, the Workforce Development for Students and Teachers Unit of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL) has developed teacher’s lesson plans designed around Robert’s fossil kits. In science, this is known as collaboration, and VFM commends both Robert and PNL. Robert tells us that he has only just begun developing a line of fossil kits ranging from the general for primary-age students, to thematic kits for more advanced classroom activities in secondary schools and beyond. Good luck Robert! Every kid should get to have a kit of traces of past life that they can touch and feel. This would foster an understanding of the inextricable linkages of all living things today, and how fragile life can be on a planet earth they will be custodians of all too soon. Here's the growing list of the fossil museum contributors:
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Reflections from the end of 2007: Yikes, these are a bit overdo! Reflections from the end of 2006: About Science Progress, Time’s 2006 Person of the Year, Science Blogs and Palaeos Reflections from the end of 2005: After a period of stasis, The Virtual Fossil Museum (VFM) is radiating. Equilibrium is being punctuated by a plethora of selective pressures, not the least of which is an eclectic coterie of contributors. Amateurs and pros, doctors and sanitary engineers have put the lonely webmaster months behind the content. Natural selection will also result in metamorphosis of some sections, and evolutionary convergence of styles in other sections.
We also decided, since we are after all a grass roots and ad hoc undertaking by an all-volunteer consortium, to let most sections be available as they are being built, revised, edited and augmented; this makes the site easier to build and edit, when all can see it as it evolves. All should be proud of being recognized in the Netwatch section of the prestigious journal Science in the June 17, 2005 edition. Over the last six months of 2005, the VFM had nearly 3000 visits per day during weekdays, some two-thirds from students from elementary school, high school, and undergraduate college, as best can be determined from the server statistics data. The website is integrated into curricula at many schools. As of early January, 2006, there were images of more than 400 fossils awaiting addition to the site; thus, 2006 will be another year of growth for the VFM. Cheers - the Webmaster
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