Friday, October 06, 2006
The South Dakota Trip
I'll have a detailed description of what happened during this trip at some point in the near future. Yes, I mean it. However, here's the 'official' version (from the Wright State website).
Trekking across the Badlands of South Dakota… exploring Mammoth Hot Springs… meeting “Stan,” the Tyrannosaurus Rex… combing through Como Bluffs… getting pounded by a wicked hail storm…
When seventeen willing, able and excited students registered for an eleven-day field study with Wright State University-Lake Campus Associate Professor of Geology Dr. Chuck Ciampaglio, no preliminary course description could have prepared them for these experiences and much more as they traveled throughout the Western states, examining geology and learning much more than they might from a text book.
“This course was a once in a lifetime experience, and I am thrilled to have been part of it,” says Jennifer Burnett, a senior criminal justice major from Celina. “I had a wonderful time, and I learned a great deal.”
Ciampaglio is a strong advocate of field study courses, particularly in science, in which students can learn through experience rather than from a textbook. “Putting your hands on something that’s 250 million years old, there’s no way to teach that in a classroom,” he passionately states. “You’re touching an antiquity, and you just can’t get that in a book.”
Based on this philosophy, Dr. Ciampaglio worked more than 8 months planning this field study that would expose his class to a vast array of Western geology and paleontology. After choosing the field sites he wanted to include, he planned an itinerary that would give the students the most bang for their proverbial buck – in eleven days, the group went 4500 miles and saw more than 20 historic, scientific and geological wonders.
After leaving the Lake Campus in the early morning hours in late August, the group loaded their gear into four vehicles and headed toward their first stop, Albertlee, Minnesota. Here they looked at the The Dells of the Wisconsin River, where the group studied and rock formations carved into Cambrian sandstone that were formed between 510-520 million years ago.
This stop was just the tip of the iceberg, however, in terms of what the students would be discovering on their journey. The next stop would be at a ranch on the outskirts of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Here the group would experience their first dig, where Ciampaglio says they “collected ammonites and crabs and snails... all things from the Cretaceous seaway.”
As they collected from this area, including “The Breaks”, which are areas of exposed rock in the hills, the students found iridescent mother-of-pearl specimens. “The fossils we saw were really cool,” smiles Ciampaglio. “You had these pearly ammonites and you were finding them by looking for these round nodules. You’d hit the nodule with a hammer, break it open, and there would be the fossil.”
This was certainly not the delicate work one might think of when you envision the careful excavation of a paleontologist. Digging these particular fossils was something that Ciampaglio heard about from a colleague, Tad Rust, whom he met at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. After spending the night at the breathtaking Badlands Monument, the group traveled to Rust’s shop in Rapid City. There they examined the various fossils that Rust prepped and sells.
Ryan Steinbrunner, a senior middle childhood education major from Ft. Recovery, learned a great deal from the ranch dig and the tour of the shop. “The most valuable learning experience was when we met with Tad and got to dig on his land,” he says. “He knew what he was doing and really helped us out. It was very educational to go to his shop and see his collection and how he works.”
Exposing the students to this type of work was certainly one of the objectives that Ciampaglio set out to achieve. “Some of these students had never been west of the Mississippi, nor did they understand what this type of work all involves,” he says. “Showing [the students] things they might never see, and then seeing the reaction, that’s definitely something to watch.”
The next stops, at Edgemont, South Dakota, where they worked on 2-foot diameter boulders containing dozens of ammonites during a tremendous lightning storm, and at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, were definitely something extraordinary for the students to have the opportunity to see. A couple million years ago, two dozen mammoths died at a sinkhole in the Hot Springs, where the belief is that the beasts slipped and died as they fell. Scientists who found the mammoths excavated around them, and a museum was built so the mammoths could be viewed right where they fell.
From the Hot Springs, the group trekked to Custer State Park for camping and a view of the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore. As they camped, the group saw buffalo and other wildlife in the state park. “I loved seeing the wildlife of the West,” says Steinbrunner. “I got to get up real close to a wild buffalo and get some pictures of it, what a thrill!!”
The wildlife the students saw in the state park would not compare to the animal they would see next on their journey. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, is a personal favorite of Ciampaglio’s. Founded by the Larson brothers, this museum was the base for their work on “Sue,” the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever assembled. Although Sue no longer lives at the Black Hills Institute — she’s in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago —another T-Rex called “Stan” resides in the museum. Stan is the second-most complete, and an awesome sight.
“There is no one better than this group for prep,” says Ciampaglio. “Neal Larson [one of the founding brothers] gave a few of us a tour of his prep shop and it’s incomparable to any other.”
“They’re prepping a T-Rex that has skin impressions,” he adds. “It’s incredible.”
Seeing the prep shop was the right incentive for the next stop on the journey, where the students explored and excavated Como Bluffs in Wyoming. Here were the “Bone Wars” of the 1880s, where E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh competed for dinosaurs in a land rich with fossil remains. In the 1900s a museum built from actual dinosaur bones was erected and the area became known as the “home of the American dinosaurs.”
“We collected in the back of the Bluffs, where we had permission to dig in the marine area that was covered by the Sundance Sea at one time,” says Ciampaglio.
More extensive marine collection would take place at Ulrich’s Fish Gallery, “the fossil fish capital of the world.” Here, Carl Ulrich, who owns the quarry perched 7800 ft. above sea level, allows groups to chisel in the limestone and search for fossils.
“We spent about 4 hours there,” says Ciampaglio. “You can really feel that elevation when you’re working that hard.”
Steinbrunner adds Ulrich’s Fish Gallery was phenomenal. “The guides there were very knowledgeable and fun and I was able to find some really cool fish fossils.”
After driving through the Flaming Gorge in Utah, where the Colorado River has cut through and exposed amazing red rocks, the group visited another museum and Dinosaur National Monument. Although they were scheduled to then dig in Delta, Utah, a tremendous hailstorm derailed the drive.
“You could see the storm coming,” says Ciampaglio, who captured the clouds on camera. “We were heading to Delta on Route 10, getting close to Route 70, when this hit. Here we are, in the canyon lands of Utah, and there’s no where to go.”
Fifteen minutes later, three of the vehicles had shattered windshields and all of the cars sustained major damage from the tennis ball-sized hail. Unfortunately, this same storm was headed to Delta, where Ciampaglio and the students had hoped to dig for trilobites. Instead, they traveled to Salina, Utah, to re-group, and to find someone to fix the windshields.
“We were all pretty rattled. We got to Salina, made calls, and found someone in Grand Rapids, Colorado, about 220 miles away, who could fix the cars on a Saturday,” Ciampaglio says. “We missed the trilobites, but that was the only thing we had scheduled that we didn’t get to do.”
With three new windshields, the refreshed group loaded back into the cars and headed to the Rocky Mountains. Stops here included the Red Rock Concert Hall, which was built into the red Arkosic mountain rocks, and Dinosaur Ridge. These big platforms are naturally exposed rock with embedded dinosaur footprints.
“You can actually see where a big dinosaur walked next to a little dinosaur,” says Ciampaglio. The students really enjoyed this portion of the tour, where it made the dinosaurs much more real creatures.”
Burnett agrees as she adds, “I really enjoyed the dinosaur trackways.”
Following another museum stop, the group started the trek back to Ohio, but even this drive was not without an educational adventure. Ciampaglio chose six spots along the way that he referred to as “road cuts,” where the students collected fossils such as shark teeth and clams from the Cretaceous period. They also gathered specimens from the Permian and Pennsylvanian periods as they traveled home, stopping along the highway to dig through the rock.
Arriving back in Ohio, the group unloaded their gear, over five thousand photos and over six thousand specimens. In addition, many acquired a new-found appreciation for geology and the arduous work that the scientists dedicate themselves to in order to uncover the mysteries of the past.
“This course really spiked my interest in geology. My original intention was go on this trip as a vacation to get away for awhile,” Steinbrunner reveals. “But I really enjoyed the geology learning experience and plan on going on a lot more of Dr. Ciampaglio’s geology trips each quarter. I am even thinking about choosing a minor in Geology now!”
Hearing this, Ciampaglio knows that the goals he set to achieve with the carefully planned field course were met.
“I wanted to teach about the geology of the west and give these students the experience of a lifetime,” he says. “I can talk about the Badlands, but letting them see how beautiful and majestic everything out there is, from the Black Hills to the buffalo, to the national monuments to the dinosaur trackways… I just wanted them to experience that for themselves.”
September 8, 2006
A Journey of A Lifetime: 17 Students Head West for a Field Study Course
Trekking across the Badlands of South Dakota… exploring Mammoth Hot Springs… meeting “Stan,” the Tyrannosaurus Rex… combing through Como Bluffs… getting pounded by a wicked hail storm…When seventeen willing, able and excited students registered for an eleven-day field study with Wright State University-Lake Campus Associate Professor of Geology Dr. Chuck Ciampaglio, no preliminary course description could have prepared them for these experiences and much more as they traveled throughout the Western states, examining geology and learning much more than they might from a text book.
“This course was a once in a lifetime experience, and I am thrilled to have been part of it,” says Jennifer Burnett, a senior criminal justice major from Celina. “I had a wonderful time, and I learned a great deal.”
Ciampaglio is a strong advocate of field study courses, particularly in science, in which students can learn through experience rather than from a textbook. “Putting your hands on something that’s 250 million years old, there’s no way to teach that in a classroom,” he passionately states. “You’re touching an antiquity, and you just can’t get that in a book.”
Based on this philosophy, Dr. Ciampaglio worked more than 8 months planning this field study that would expose his class to a vast array of Western geology and paleontology. After choosing the field sites he wanted to include, he planned an itinerary that would give the students the most bang for their proverbial buck – in eleven days, the group went 4500 miles and saw more than 20 historic, scientific and geological wonders.
After leaving the Lake Campus in the early morning hours in late August, the group loaded their gear into four vehicles and headed toward their first stop, Albertlee, Minnesota. Here they looked at the The Dells of the Wisconsin River, where the group studied and rock formations carved into Cambrian sandstone that were formed between 510-520 million years ago.
This stop was just the tip of the iceberg, however, in terms of what the students would be discovering on their journey. The next stop would be at a ranch on the outskirts of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Here the group would experience their first dig, where Ciampaglio says they “collected ammonites and crabs and snails... all things from the Cretaceous seaway.”
As they collected from this area, including “The Breaks”, which are areas of exposed rock in the hills, the students found iridescent mother-of-pearl specimens. “The fossils we saw were really cool,” smiles Ciampaglio. “You had these pearly ammonites and you were finding them by looking for these round nodules. You’d hit the nodule with a hammer, break it open, and there would be the fossil.”
This was certainly not the delicate work one might think of when you envision the careful excavation of a paleontologist. Digging these particular fossils was something that Ciampaglio heard about from a colleague, Tad Rust, whom he met at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. After spending the night at the breathtaking Badlands Monument, the group traveled to Rust’s shop in Rapid City. There they examined the various fossils that Rust prepped and sells.
Ryan Steinbrunner, a senior middle childhood education major from Ft. Recovery, learned a great deal from the ranch dig and the tour of the shop. “The most valuable learning experience was when we met with Tad and got to dig on his land,” he says. “He knew what he was doing and really helped us out. It was very educational to go to his shop and see his collection and how he works.”
Exposing the students to this type of work was certainly one of the objectives that Ciampaglio set out to achieve. “Some of these students had never been west of the Mississippi, nor did they understand what this type of work all involves,” he says. “Showing [the students] things they might never see, and then seeing the reaction, that’s definitely something to watch.”
The next stops, at Edgemont, South Dakota, where they worked on 2-foot diameter boulders containing dozens of ammonites during a tremendous lightning storm, and at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, were definitely something extraordinary for the students to have the opportunity to see. A couple million years ago, two dozen mammoths died at a sinkhole in the Hot Springs, where the belief is that the beasts slipped and died as they fell. Scientists who found the mammoths excavated around them, and a museum was built so the mammoths could be viewed right where they fell.
From the Hot Springs, the group trekked to Custer State Park for camping and a view of the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore. As they camped, the group saw buffalo and other wildlife in the state park. “I loved seeing the wildlife of the West,” says Steinbrunner. “I got to get up real close to a wild buffalo and get some pictures of it, what a thrill!!”
The wildlife the students saw in the state park would not compare to the animal they would see next on their journey. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, is a personal favorite of Ciampaglio’s. Founded by the Larson brothers, this museum was the base for their work on “Sue,” the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever assembled. Although Sue no longer lives at the Black Hills Institute — she’s in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago —another T-Rex called “Stan” resides in the museum. Stan is the second-most complete, and an awesome sight.
“There is no one better than this group for prep,” says Ciampaglio. “Neal Larson [one of the founding brothers] gave a few of us a tour of his prep shop and it’s incomparable to any other.”
“They’re prepping a T-Rex that has skin impressions,” he adds. “It’s incredible.”
Seeing the prep shop was the right incentive for the next stop on the journey, where the students explored and excavated Como Bluffs in Wyoming. Here were the “Bone Wars” of the 1880s, where E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh competed for dinosaurs in a land rich with fossil remains. In the 1900s a museum built from actual dinosaur bones was erected and the area became known as the “home of the American dinosaurs.”
“We collected in the back of the Bluffs, where we had permission to dig in the marine area that was covered by the Sundance Sea at one time,” says Ciampaglio.
More extensive marine collection would take place at Ulrich’s Fish Gallery, “the fossil fish capital of the world.” Here, Carl Ulrich, who owns the quarry perched 7800 ft. above sea level, allows groups to chisel in the limestone and search for fossils.
“We spent about 4 hours there,” says Ciampaglio. “You can really feel that elevation when you’re working that hard.”
Steinbrunner adds Ulrich’s Fish Gallery was phenomenal. “The guides there were very knowledgeable and fun and I was able to find some really cool fish fossils.”
After driving through the Flaming Gorge in Utah, where the Colorado River has cut through and exposed amazing red rocks, the group visited another museum and Dinosaur National Monument. Although they were scheduled to then dig in Delta, Utah, a tremendous hailstorm derailed the drive.
“You could see the storm coming,” says Ciampaglio, who captured the clouds on camera. “We were heading to Delta on Route 10, getting close to Route 70, when this hit. Here we are, in the canyon lands of Utah, and there’s no where to go.”
Fifteen minutes later, three of the vehicles had shattered windshields and all of the cars sustained major damage from the tennis ball-sized hail. Unfortunately, this same storm was headed to Delta, where Ciampaglio and the students had hoped to dig for trilobites. Instead, they traveled to Salina, Utah, to re-group, and to find someone to fix the windshields.
“We were all pretty rattled. We got to Salina, made calls, and found someone in Grand Rapids, Colorado, about 220 miles away, who could fix the cars on a Saturday,” Ciampaglio says. “We missed the trilobites, but that was the only thing we had scheduled that we didn’t get to do.”
With three new windshields, the refreshed group loaded back into the cars and headed to the Rocky Mountains. Stops here included the Red Rock Concert Hall, which was built into the red Arkosic mountain rocks, and Dinosaur Ridge. These big platforms are naturally exposed rock with embedded dinosaur footprints.
“You can actually see where a big dinosaur walked next to a little dinosaur,” says Ciampaglio. The students really enjoyed this portion of the tour, where it made the dinosaurs much more real creatures.”
Burnett agrees as she adds, “I really enjoyed the dinosaur trackways.”
Following another museum stop, the group started the trek back to Ohio, but even this drive was not without an educational adventure. Ciampaglio chose six spots along the way that he referred to as “road cuts,” where the students collected fossils such as shark teeth and clams from the Cretaceous period. They also gathered specimens from the Permian and Pennsylvanian periods as they traveled home, stopping along the highway to dig through the rock.
Arriving back in Ohio, the group unloaded their gear, over five thousand photos and over six thousand specimens. In addition, many acquired a new-found appreciation for geology and the arduous work that the scientists dedicate themselves to in order to uncover the mysteries of the past.
“This course really spiked my interest in geology. My original intention was go on this trip as a vacation to get away for awhile,” Steinbrunner reveals. “But I really enjoyed the geology learning experience and plan on going on a lot more of Dr. Ciampaglio’s geology trips each quarter. I am even thinking about choosing a minor in Geology now!”
Hearing this, Ciampaglio knows that the goals he set to achieve with the carefully planned field course were met.
“I wanted to teach about the geology of the west and give these students the experience of a lifetime,” he says. “I can talk about the Badlands, but letting them see how beautiful and majestic everything out there is, from the Black Hills to the buffalo, to the national monuments to the dinosaur trackways… I just wanted them to experience that for themselves.”
For more information, contact Sandi Holdheide, 419 586-0359.
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hmm, that doesn't really resemble the story you told me part way thru the trip . . .
# posted by 
: 8:16 AM
: 8:16 AM
The 'official' version just isn't quite as detailed as the one I told you Miss Amy. And it's a family publication, that really cuts back on the descriptors that can be used.
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