
Open Curriculum for High School Paleontology
I am currently in the process of designing a high school course for paleontology using constructivist and 5E cycle-based pedagogy. It is an ongoing project, and will be downloadable/shareable here. (Please email for access).
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Currently in the United States, outside of homeschooling options, there are two paleontology electives offered to high school students. One is a private school with an onsite museum that costs about $60,000 a year to attend. The other is a purely online option that also costs families out of pocket.
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Using my experience as paleontologist with a decent fossil collection of my own and an AMNH-trained science educator, I have endeavored to change who has access to paleontology in high school through a pedagogically sound survey course on a range of vertebrate, invertebrate, botanical, climatic, terrestrial, and marine subjects. This work represents the only paleontology curriculum available for high schoolers in the country, and it will always be free to use.
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A long-term goal of this project is to become certified by NGSS, but it does not currently have any accreditation.
