SCHOOL: Buies Creek Elementary

GRADE LEVEL: 4th

PROGRAM: Fun Fossils and Formations

INSTRUCTOR: Aaron Henderson

Scientist Aaron’s Experience:

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go to Buies Creek Elementary School in Buies Creek, NC, to talk to some fourth graders about fossils and landforms. It was such a blast! As I walked into the class I could already sense the excitement they all had for the experiments we were going to go through.

We started off by simply talking about the difference between body and trace fossils and then quickly got into making our take home project! We made a mold fossil using clay and some replica dinosaur skulls. With these, we added plaster to make the caste fossil that the kids would get to take home! They were all so excited to see the finished product of this replica trace fossil.

Throughout the entire program I could see how interested everyone was to the topics discussed. There were many good, thought provoking questions asked which only further showed me how engaged they all were. We continued talking over landforms and ways that they could change. Everyone loved the ways we experimented with these. In groups, all the kids got to do their own volcano and experiment with earthquakes’ effects on man made structures!

Through both of the sessions at Buies Creek I had such a blast. The kids were excited which only makes my job more fun and enjoyable. I cannot wait to go back and do more experiments with all of the fourth grade junior scientists!