I chatted about the Coon Creek Science Center with geologist Dr. Brandt Gibson, lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Here is a look into our conversation:
Q: Happy Earth Science Week, Dr. Gibson! Is Coon Creek doing any special programs this week?
A: “Thanks, you too! We’re not running a specific Earth Science Week program this year, but we are obviously celebrating ESW during our usual programming. For example, our 3rd Saturday Community Day this week will expand on our usual Coon Creek exploration to discuss related aspects of Earth science, such as ecosystem change through time.”
Q: I read that the facility prides itself on its open-ended inquiry-based methodology. Can you give us an example?
A: “While we do discuss the historical and geologic background of the site before we venture to the creek bed, our main approach to visitor education and engagement comes through personal exploration.
As visitors begin excavating fossils, we build the learning experience based on the exact specimens they’re exhuming. For example, some clam shells will have obvious holes throughout, giving them a very porous appearance. Visitors often make the connection that the clam was likely something's lunch, and we can fill in the gaps: In this case, it was a boring sponge.
Docents can then use visitors’ exact fossils to discuss fossil community interactions and tailor lesson plans based on what was discovered that day.”
Q: In your Fossil Preparation Pavilion, visitors are instructed how to carve out their fossils to leave them within a large chunk of the substrate. Why is this a best practice?
A: “The fossils are exceedingly fragile. Often, it’s those sediments that surround the fossils that are actually holding them together. By leaving some of that substrate intact, it increases the support and stops the fossils from falling apart.”
Q: How does the Center teach about geomorphic processes?
A: “Before even getting in the creek, we often discuss why we use the creek to excavate fossils. The creek has textbook meandering stream characteristics, so we discuss point bar deposition and cut bank erosion. We often discuss how mass wasting is operating along the channel margins, and we show the lateral extent of the current valley and previous terrace. This leads us to a larger discussion of landscape evolution on human timescales.”
Q. How do UT Martin students use the Center?
A. “Undergraduate students frequently take field trips. Of course, I bring my paleontology class to learn about not only the individual fossils, but also the processes that led to their exceptional preservation. We also bring every geology student to the Center for them to learn techniques for if/when they become a field geologist—using a compass, reading and creating geologic maps, and more.
Some students work as interns at the Center to gain hands-on experience on how to properly process, document, and preserve fossils for long-term collection uses. The most noticeable way our students get involved with the Center is as docents. This helps prepare them for scientific communication or education careers.”
Q: What do you want visitors to take away from Coon Creek Science Center?
A: “We have a world-class fossil site that yields more and better-preserved fossils than most places worldwide. The preservation is so good that we still have the original hard tissues preserved as if the organisms just died—that’s very rare! It’s also one of the few places where visitors can actively come in and excavate such quality material to take home. We want to introduce as many minds to past life and paleontology as we can.”
