Education and Public Outreach

NAPC 2009 provided a unique opportunity for K-12 educators in the Cincinnati region to learn more about fossils as the record of ancient life and evidence for evolutionary change.  Educators were invited to participate in an Education-and-Public-Outreach Day: Thursday, June 25, 2009. Some 40 participants took part in the program, joining in for the day with more than 500 NAPC professional and student registrants.  Sessions especially suitable for educators on that day included: 

Morning Plenary Session on Evolution and Society: 8:00am – 12:00pm, Presentations were included on the creationism-evolution controversy and other topical issues, including talks by Eugenie Scott (National Council for Science Education) and Ken Miller (Brown Univ. biologist, author of Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul).  A series of topical breakout discussions took place over lunch. 

Two Afternoon Symposia on Paleontology in K-12 Education and The Nature of Science and Public Science Literacy: 1:30pm – 5:30pm, Speakers included more than a dozen experts from throughout the United States.   

Participants were also able to  visit NAPC exhibits, which offered resources from state geological surveys, professional paleontological organizations, regional amateur groups, and book publishers

At the afternoon symposium on K-12 Education, Judith Scotchmoor demonstrates her many online units available to teach about dinosaurs: