UA’s Museum Offers History Exploration to Community

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The West Alabama community will have an opportunity to search for pieces of the past during The University of Alabama Museum of Natural History’s 37th annual Museum Expedition.

With a focus on paleontology, students will spend a week working side by side with scientists on a field research project in Alabama’s Black Belt. They will collect samples, learn how to care and maintain material and understand the importance of preserving these pieces. They are involved in every step of the process, from digging to identifying and processing.

“This type of program allows people to really see how paleontology, archaeology and ecology really work,” said Allie Sorlie, museum education coordinator. “We’re hoping that maybe we can instill an interest in science, a love of science. We just want to see people getting hooked on science.”

Most of what the students find are animal teeth, fish material, shark material and marine reptile material, but, two years ago, a middle schooler discovered part of a large neck vertebra of an elasmosaur, which is a subgroup of the late Cretaceous plesiosaurs.

If the discovered pieces are important to the museum’s collection, it will be kept by the museum, and the student who found the piece will be listed as the collector.

In addition to working in the field, campers sleep in tents and take field showers. Meals will be prepared in a field-kitchen trailer. Morning digs will focus on deposits that would have been sea beds during the Cretaceous time. Other historic sites will be visited in the afternoons. The evening hours are devoted to fun activities and more educational opportunities — star gazing, night hikes, biodiversity and programs on paleontology.

The middle-school camp is June 8 through 13, and it is open to rising seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.The high school camp is June 15 through 20. The public camp is June 22 through 27, and it is open to anyone over the age of 12. Each camp costs $350.

Those interested are encouraged to register as soon as possible. There is a limited number of available slots. For more information or to register, phone 205/348-7550 or email museum.programs@ua.edu.

“This camp is unlike anything you’ve ever done before,” Sorlie said. “It’s absolutely incredible. We have students who have gone through the program for five and six years. We’ve also had students who have participated in Expedition for a few years and are now pursuing careers in science. That’s what we love to see.”