Paleontological Experiences, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is designed to give Wisconsin K-12 teachers hands-on training in vertebrate paleontology, using fieldwork and laboratory work. The course is divided into three sections.

Week One
Introduction to:
• Taphonomy or How Bone is Preserved
• Osteology or How Bones are Organized in a Skeleton
• Cladistics or How Organisms are Classified
• Kansas Fossils and How to Extract Them

Week Two
Spend 10 Days in Kansas and Colorado to:
• Extract fossil fish and reptiles
• Prospect for new fossils
• Collect dinosaur bone fragments
• Map dinosaur footprints
• Take photos and video of experiences

Week Three
Work in University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum Lab to:
• Prepare and clean fossils
• Create molds of fossils
• Make casts of fossils
• Make acetate peel of dinosaur bone
• Create slide show or video of experience
• Create classroom activity from experience

Using materials gathered during the program, teachers:
• Develop curricula for their classrooms They use the Denver Earth Science Project materials as well as other resources as reference material.
• Present workshops for other teachers in their district and the state
• Give presentations of their summer experience to other classrooms
• Set up paleontology preparation labs in their schools so students can learn to prep fossils
• Learn to use more video and computer technology in the presentation of paleontology