Barrington Middle School
Barrington, Illinois
Sheryl  Campen & Anne Kendeigh 6th-8th grade

Class Description:
 
Sheryl Campen and Anne Kendeigh, like most BMS teachers, have advisory classes at their middle school. Together, their 25 advisory students will represent ALL of 1080 students, including 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Sheryl Campen has been introducing her 7th graders to the world of paleontology with Paul Sereno since she met Paul in July of 1999. Paul is a working scientist students can really "know". Her advisory students help her run a small concession stand in her science classroom, and the monthly profits are sent to Project Exploration. Anne Kendeigh is a new teacher in the school this year, and she has the excitement and energy that is necessary to get on board to include the Dinosaur Expedition 2003 in her Language Arts lessons.  Whatever Paul and Gabe are doing - we want to be right in the middle of it!

Student Questions:

1. What are the personal dangers you face? (I.E., scorpions, insects, disease, heat exhaustion?)
   
   SERENO: Well, you hit on four dangers. There are more. Vehicle accidents are the number one danger. Tool accidents second. Third are health concerns, including things like malaria from mosquitoes. Fourth is probably rock falls, and so on.
   
   
2. How do you decide HOW to connect the few, random bones when you have never seen this extinct dinosaur before?
   
   GRAY: Through comparative anatomy, which is to say, we compare the characteristics of the bones that we’ve discovered to the bones of other, known animals -- from the past and present. Most of the bones in a dinosaur are remarkably like your own.
   
   
3. Thinking back to your most exciting discovery, can you describe the emotion of that moment? (i. e., Were you speechless, choked up, or maybe brimming with tears?)
   
   SERENO: Brimming with tears, after I let out a scream. I had found my first dinosaur, a beautiful skeleton with the skull of the dinosaur Herrerasaurus, now mounted in the Field Museum. The first one will always be special. I couldn’t believe we had done it -- found a complete skeleton of an early dinosaur.
   
   
4. What happens to the completed skeletons or fossils after they have been completely removed from the rock and the specimen has been restored?
   
   GRAY: The bones are usually copied through a molding and casting processes. This way we can make a whole set of plastic bones that look almost exactly like the originals and use them for mounted display. The real fossil bones are usually kept in museum collections so they can be studied by other paleontologists.
   
   
5. Parent Question:
   How would someone who is interested in this fieldwork get to the point where he/she could join Paul and Gabe on an expedition as a crew member?
   
   SERENO: I owe the chance first to the students in my classes and my lab, because these are the folks that will lead tomorrow’s expeditions. These are also the folks who have the background to help the expedition succeed. And, these are often the people that I know best -- and you need to know your team members before you go off into the desert with them.