Give students the right scientific puzzle and they’ll think like scientists. That was the idea behind a summer camp for high school students at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Students had access to museum resources like computer graphics programs, 3D printers, and guidance from museum staff members. For two weeks the campers became digital detectives, assembling evidence and asking questions. In the process, they also took a close look at a possible future career.
A Paleo Puzzle
The program title was sure to excite campers: “Capturing Dinosaurs: Reconstructing Extinct Species Through Digital Fabrication.” In fact, it was an experiment. “Capturing Dinosaurs is the first time the museum has tried to use digital fabrication to teach young people about science. Specifically, about paleontology,” said Barry Joseph, associate director for digital learning at the museum.
Like real scientists, the students confronted a puzzle. “Part of the program was that we did not tell them the animal that they were scanning,” said Aki Watanabe, a student at the museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School and a camp assistant. “So part of the puzzle was looking at the bones that they were scanning and trying to figure out which dinosaur it came from.”
Museum staff taught the students about research methods and about all of the necessary equipment. Then, the student-scientists took up the challenges of modeling the fossils, making reproductions, and fitting them together to figure out the type of dinosaur they were working with. “Every time they tried to stitch the models together, they were looking with careful detail at minute aspects of those bones,” said Joseph. “The same things that paleontologists do.”
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の November/December 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の November/December 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.