Solomon School
Chicago, Illinois
Joan M. Jones, 3rd Grade Classroom 110

Hannah G. Solomon School Information

Solomon School is a Chicago Public School of Excellence, located in the Peterson Park area, in the northwest side of Chicago (6200 North and 3700 West). It is an economically and academically diverse school with a multi-ethnic population of approximately 400 Pre-K through 8th grade students comprised of approximately 40% White, 30% Black, 12% Asian/Pacific Islander. A Northwest Magnet Cluster school, Solomon School offers an International Scholars Program. For example, Mandarin Chinese is taught throughout all grades. Technology is integrated across Solomon’s entire curriculum. As a result of Solomon’s previous contribution to Project Exploration 2000, internationally renowned paleontologist Paul Sereno, from the University of Chicago, facilitated Solomon’s current participation in Gear Up, a college preparatory program for upper grade students. Solomon parents are supportive and involved. As a result, Solomon has a strong sense of community, celebrating collective successes.

What you might want to know about the third grade students:

We are in the third grade at Solomon School in Chicago, Illinois. There are 31 students in our class. We have 17 boys and 14 girls. We love to read! Scholastic Books will donate 100 books to very poor schools if we read 100 books before December 1st. We have already read 80 books!! We really want to get those free books for any school that needs books. In Science we have been studying about the Earth’s surface, volcanoes, and dinosaurs. We watched your movie Skeletons in the Sand. It was really cool to see how enormous some of the bones were. We really liked the part where the guy was on the ground right next to the really big bone. Just in case you have not heard yet… The Cubs have won the first series against the Atlanta Braves last night Sunday October 5th. They will now play the Florida Marlins beginning Tuesday, October 7th.

Student Questions:

1. How do you know how much food, water, medicine, first aide supplies, and other supplies you will need to bring with you? Do you have to bring your own shelter? What if someone on your team gets hurt or sick while you are in the desert?
   
   GRAY: Tons! We brought 14,000 liters of water out with us for this first 3-week session of field work alone. Most of the food is dehydrated, but that still means hundreds of pounds to feed the nearly twenty people of our crew. Our shelter consists of two large frame tents for supplies and the occasional sandstorm, though we all sleep outside most of the time. Minor sicknesses are quite common out here as most of us are not used to the many critters present in Niger, and there are a multitude of more serious illnesses that, though not as prevalent, are very dangerous. We pack accordingly: lots and lots of the best medicines, a satellite phone to contact our doctor back in the states and a trained EMT on our crew. People who get really sick would be evacuated.
   
   
2. Have you found any new dinosaurs on this trip? How many?
   
   SERENO: I am sure that we have found some new ones already. Africa is so far away from other continents and so little work has been done here that anything you find that is well preserved is almost always something new. Problem is, we don’t know many of the details until we clean the finds off in the lab.
   
   
3. How many different kinds of dinosaurs have you discovered since you have been exploring the Sahara?
   
   SERENO: More than one dozen. We are still cleaning several new ones, including one of our largest!
   
   
4. What did you have to do to become a Paleontologist? How long does it take?
   
   GRAY: College for a bachelor’s degree (usually four years) and then a Ph.D. program (5 to 7 years in general).
   
   
5. Parent Question:
   Ms. Viets wanted to know - What animal living now is most like the dinosaur of long ago?
   
   SERENO: I would say an ostrich -- and come to think of it, I just saw one today!