Students make discoveries in the dirt

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Hart Henrichsen, 11, of Lusby searches for sharks’ teeth during the Maryland Summer Center for Paleontology last week. The week and a half-long camp is sponsored by the Maryland Department of Education. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

CHESPAX teacher Tom Harten, with the help of experts in the field of paleontology and other sciences as well as teachers, led a group of talented and gifted students from Maryland ranging from seventh to ninth grade on a week long journey through the world of paleontology

The programs are hosted by the Maryland Department of Education and allow for students to get a hands-on experience on environmental studies.

According to a press release, the summer center ‘‘provides Maryland’s diverse gifted and talented student population with advanced rigorous experimental learning opportunities that nurture these students’ talents and abilities within unique learning environments.”

Throughout the paleontology week, Harten said students got a feel for what can be learned from fossils.

He said students studied sharks’ teeth a lot as they are abundant in the Calvert area. He said by using modern day sharks they were able to gather information about sharks from the past.

Students visited such sites as Calvert Cliffs in Lusby, Brownie Beach in North Beach, the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons and others.

Students found more than just sharks’ teeth, as one student found a crocodile tooth reported to be hundreds of years old. Another student found the tooth of a whale.

‘‘I liked that we could actively go out and find sharks’ teeth and that we were told how we could find them,” said Hart Henrichsen, 11, from Lusby.

A class full of students came from different parts of Maryland to participate in the summer center and some came back from years prior.

Carrie Baumgartner, 13, of Hollywood Md., was back for her second summer center for paleontology.

‘‘This is more like hands-on ... At school you are more worried about grades,” she said of why she preferred the summer center to learning similar subjects at school.

Steve VanRees, a learning specialist with the Calvert County public school system, said he was impressed with the enthusiasm of the students this summer.

VanRees said the difference between learning at school and learning at the summer program is that the students at the summer centers gathered information and analyzed data from their own findings rather than learning from the textbook.

He said the students can use what they learned at the center and apply it in their studies when they return to school in the fall

He said the students would most benefit from what they learned about gathering data.

Students said they enjoyed the program and would like to come back next year.

‘‘The best part is learning while having fun,” Ryan Frankle, 12, of Huntingtown said.

Today, students will present their research to one another, teachers and guests at a celebration and final day of the program.

Students were divided into four teams to complete a different task. Each team created one of four projects, a PowerPoint presentation, Web site, newsletter and an exhibit. Each project entailed the students’ discoveries over the past week and a half.