Summer Workshop Plans

Summer Workshop Agenda

Keystone runs this 3-day workshop for teachers consecutively. The first workshop starts on Sunday afternnon and ends on Wednesday morning, and the second begins that Wednesday afternoon and ends on Saturday morning.

Sunday: (or Wednesday)	4:00	Course and Credit Registration Settle into cabins
	5:30	Dinner (upstairs Bender Center)
	7:00	Welcome, Introductions, Curriculum and Background Safety, Environmental Education (Amphitheater)
	8:00	Site Orientation
Monday (or Thursday)	7:30	Breakfast
	8:30	Morning Discovery Sessions (convene at Campfire Ring) Discovery Hike - Group 1 Discovering Ponds - Group 2
	11:30	Small Group Evaluations/Adaptations/Discussion
	12:00	Lunch
	1:00	Group 1 & 2 Switch
	4:00	Small Group Evaluations/Adaptations/Discussion
	4:30	Free Time
	5:30	Dinner
	7:00	Word Session -- Prep Time for Night Life Optional Discussion - Making a Residential Experience Happen: Planning, Preparation, Implementation
	9:00	Campfire (Amphitheater) Night Life - Night Stations (Participant Led)
Tuesday (or Friday)	7:30	Breakfast
	8:30	Forest Discoveries - Group 1 Studying Streams - Group 2
	11:30	Small Group Evaluations/Adaptations/Discussion
	12:00	Lunch
	1:00	Group 1 & 2 Switch
	4:00	Small Group Evaluations/Adaptations/Discussion
	4:30	Free Time
	5:30	Dinner
	7:30-8:30	Geodiscoveries - Pre-field Activities (Participant Led)
Wednesday (or Saturday)	7:30	Breakfast Move Out of Cabins
	8:30	Geodiscoveries at Farlin
	10:30	Small Group Evaluations/Adaptations/Discussion
	11:00	Wrap Up/Evaluation/Credit Requirements
	12:00	Lunch
	1:00	Head for Home!

OBJECTIVES:

To gain a basic understanding of

• Paleontology methods and concepts.
• Significance of the Egg Mountain finds for dinosaur paleontology.
• Sedimentary rocks, the various types and origins.
• Regional geologic history of Montana.

1. Sedimentology
   1. What to look for:
      1. identify rock type
      2. look at grain shape, color, fossils
      3. look at sedimentary structures on, beneath and within beds
      4. note shape of beds
   2. Sedimentary Rock Types (*found in Willow Creek Anticline):
      1. clastic
         1. conglomerate*
         2. sandstone*
         3. siltstone*
         4. mudstone*
         5. shale
      2. biogenic
         1. limestone*
         2. chert
         3. coal
      3. chemical
         1. ironstone
         2. evaporites
         3. caliche*
      4. volcaniclastic
         1. bentonite*
         2. tuffs
   3. Important Features:
      1. grain size
         1. pebble
         2. sand
         3. silt
         4. clay
      2. grain composition
         1. source area
         2. mature vs. immature
      3. Grain shape
         1. angular vs. rounded
      4. color
         1. green vs. red or yellow
      5. fossils
         1. invertebrates
      6. sedimentary structures
         1. erosional
            1. flute casts
            2. scour marks
            3. channels
         2. depositional
            1. bedding
            2. ripples
            3. dunes
            4. cross-stratification
            5. massive bedding
            6. flaser bedding?
            7. mudcracks
         3. post-depositional
            1. slumps
            2. deformed bedding
         4. trace fossils
            1. includes tracks, burrows, etc.
            2. reflect behavior
            3. in place (in situ) and so good environmental indicators
         5. paleocurrent directions
            - measured from scour marks, channels, cross-stratification, bones
   4. Facies
      - defined by a particular set of sedimentary attributes, including rock types, sedimentary structures, body and trace fossils, color, etc.
      -3 facies of Willow Creek Anticline
      lower - river channels and floodplain
      middle - lake w/some rivers and floodplain
      upper - river channels and floodplain
   5. Stratigraphy
      1. using rocks
      2. using fossils
         its relationship to evolution
      3. using dates
      4. time units (e.g. Cretaceous Period)
      5. rock units (e.g. Two Medicine Formation)
      6. rock-time units (e.g. Upper Cretaceous)
2. Taphonomy
   - Study of burial process; what happens between death and discovery
   - How things arc preserved and how it affects information in the fossil record.
   1. Death
      1. attritional
      2. catastrophic
   2. Post-death processes
      1. decomposition
      2. scavenger activity
      3. weathering
      4. transport
         1. by water vs. by predators-scavengers
         2. sorting
         3. abrasion
         4. concentration
         5. mixing
         6. reworking
      5. dissolution
      6. diagenesis
   3. Taphonomic loss vs. taphonomic gain
      What information is lost in the fossil record vs. what can we learn from how fossils are preserved.
   4. Methods
      1. experiments
         1. the affect of currents on bones
         2. the affect of trampling on bones
      2. observation
         1. bone weathering
         2. size bias
         3. how scavengers work
      3. site interpretation
         1. sedimentology
         2. bone condition
         3. bone orientation
         4. skeletons
            1. articulated vs. disarticulated
            2. associated vs. isolated bones
         5. age-class distributions
3. Anatomy
   1. Species description
      1. type specimen
      2. diversity
   2. Evolution
      1. shared derived feature (synapomorphy)
      2. geologic vs. ecologic time scale
   3. Biogeography
      1. Why are animals found where they are?
   4. Form and Function
      1. comparative anatomy
      2. experiments
      3. adaptation vs. historical constraints
         - One can't ask a good biological question unless we know past.
   5. Pathology
   6. Bone Histology

NOTE:

You should have a good understanding of this region during the Cretaceous, for example the types of dinosaurs and fossils found, the types of environments.