Loading…
15
My geology club split over allowing kids to handle fragile samples
Is it better to educate with hands-on experience or protect delicate specimens?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
jessica_moore6mo ago
Read that good replicas teach just as well as real samples.
3
noah8726mo ago
Oh man, I dropped a "rare" fossil once and glued it back together so badly it looked modern. Maybe jessica_moore is onto something with those replicas.
3
kai_king986mo ago
My friend Liam worked at a small museum in Toledo. He was moving a replica T. rex tooth and dropped it on concrete. It shattered into about twenty pieces, but putting it back together forced him to learn every ridge and groove. He always said that break was the best training he ever had.
5
max_brown6mo ago
Used to think a real fossil was the only thing worth studying. Hearing about your glue job and Liam's broken tooth changed my mind. If a copy breaks, you learn by fixing it without the guilt. Sometimes a perfect fake is better for learning than a fragile real thing.
3