Brochures through time

While Ms. Harrison's eighth grade class was working on their geology unit, they were able to collaborate with the Saratoga Museum and start a geologic time period brochure competition. The winner of the competition, Taylor Bennett, was presented with a certificate last Friday.

Originally, during the unit, Harrison worked on comparing the coursework with the geology surrounding the region.

"What better place to learn about geology than in the Snowy Range," said Harrison.

During that time in the fall, they went on a number of hikes - including Medicine Bow Peak - while passing by the geologic history they had learned about.

"We passed through rocks of all different kinds - stromatolites, which are one of the oldest organisms found on earth - they got to see it, touch it, (and) look at a 'U' shaped valley created by a glacier," said Harrison.

Along with their lessons, they spent some time at the Saratoga Museum with former director Virginia Parker.

"They had a number of different activities and stations for the kids to look at the radioactive decay of different rocks using a Geiger meter, and the kids were interested in everything in the museum," said Parker.

While touring the facilities, and learning more about the geologic history of the Valley, Parker brought up the idea of having a brochure competition.

Each eighth-grade student was assigned a geologic time period, according to Harrison. "Their assignment was if they were to go back in time, what would they eat, how would they travel, what did the Saratoga Valley look like, what were the animals," Harrison said.

The Saratoga Museum judged the brochures based off of scientific accuracy, quality and quantity of information, artistic presentation, layout and how user friendly it was.

Harrison believes the competition aspect of it made the students get very involved in making the best brochure possible. "The kids did great they are a really competitive bunch and it was a really fun unit," said Harrison.