Project Exploration's Dinosaur Expedition 2005 is LIVE!

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

Posted for Gabe Lyon.
 
--Mary
_______
 
HELLO EDUCATORS and friends of teachers everywhere! 

In the  waning days of summer funding was secured for an expedition to 
Niger--and  Project Exploration launched DINOSAUR EXPEDITION 2005!
Weâre LIVE as of  September 2,  2005!

http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2005/

ABOUT  THE EXPEDITION:
The field component of the expedition will run September â  October; the site 
will be live with updates and correspondence through December. 

This year the team has HUMAN fossils in its sights: the group will be  
investigating one of the most important Neolithic-age fossil human sites ever  
discovered in the Sahara. The site (first discovered by Serenoâs team in 
2000),  
includes hundreds of fossilized human skeletons, tools, jewelry, habitation  
materials, and remains of the animals these ancient humans lived with. The  
paleoarchaeology will be headed by Dr. Elena Garcea, one of the worldâs 
foremost  
Africanist archaeologists. 

The team includes Amundsen high school graduate and Project Exploration  alum 
extraordinaire Shureice Kornegay. Shureice will be writing field updates  and 
is out not only to make discoveries, but also to make history--she wants to  
be one of the first African American female paleoanthroplogists. This 
expedition  is an important chance for her to learn all about the field first 
hand.  

OPPORTUNITIES RIGHT NOW:
1.        Sign up online on the expedition home page to receive field updates 
each time  theyâre posted.
2.       Send a message to the  team! You and your students can use the 
website to send a message to the team.  You probably wonât get an answer, but 
questions and comments will be available  to everyone that sees the site â 
and the 
team will DEFINITELY READ THEM! This is  a good chance for students to see 
their work online--it may take a few days for  the message to get posted so 
keep 
checking  back.
3.       Make a postcard. Choose an image  in the photo gallery to create a 
personalized postcard and email it to  someone!
4.       Use the links, bibliography  and activities as resources for 
yourself and for studentsâ  projects.

OPPORTUNITIES ON THE HORIZON: SCHOOL PARTNERS PROJECT AND  PROFESSIONAL 
DEVELOPMENT
 
For those of you who have been expedition school partners in the past donât  
worry--you havenât missed your chance to sign up. We are in conversations 
right  now with Chicago Public Schools about setting up a formal project with  
professional development opportunities and opportunities for your students to  
correspond with the team and hopefully to even visit the dinosaur lab and meet  
team members. Right now our plan is let students correspond with team members  
online AFTER the expedition team returns from the field. This will give us 
more  flexibility in all of our schedules *especially* YOURS!

I look  forward to keeping you updated as the school partners and 
professional  development plans and dates take shape. 

Until the next update â
=gabe

Gabrielle  Lyon
Executive Director, Project Exploration

PS:  Check out  the ad for the online expedition in the September issue of 
WIRED  magazine!

Gabrielle Lyon
Executive Director
Project  Exploration
950 East 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637
p. 773.834.7614
f.  773.834.ROCK (7625)