2021 was the summer of camps. I started off with the NE based all-girls STEAM camp, Camp Summergold, for a week. I had a blast being a counselor and watching the girls enjoy both science and engineering activities and typical camp fun like arts and craft, archery, music, and high ropes course.
From there, I went on to be an assistant instructor for the Sternberg Museum out of Fort Hays State University for their high school Colorado Dinosaur Field Trip. It was a sort of road trip/highlights of the major dinosaur sites of northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. We visited Dinosaur National Monument, Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, Dinosaur Ridge, and other museums, practically following the Dinosaur Diamond Freeway (yes, that’s a real thing). We ended our trip with a visit to the Denver Natural History Museum and Denver Zoo. The students got to meet a lot of professional paleontologists and got a feel for longer camping and hiking trips.
After getting back from the field, I taught a high school virtual camp with the Sternberg Museum, focusing on Permian Paleontology. We looked at geology, modern analogs, changing climates and ecosystems, how to make a stratigraphic column, and how to read scientific papers.
Devra Hock, Ph.D. 