135-5 Engaging Students and the Public in Park Paleontology: A New Educational Guide to National Park Service Fossil Resources

Session: Science and Stewardship of U.S. National Park Service Paleontological Resources

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To enhance the value of national parklands even to people who cannot visit each of them directly, the American Geosciences Insititute (AGI), in collaboration with and supported by the National Park Service (NPS), has developed a new educational guide to the paleontology of the national parks. The guide is designed to engage students and the public with paleontological resources, while also supporting and communicating NPS’s strategic approach to resource stewardship. This new guide contains ten hands-on, flexible activities that cover a range of subtopics in paleontology, including fossil types, fossilization processes, paleontological careers, and the connections between fossils and geoheritage. The guide is designed to complement and make use of existing educational materials while highlighting the extraordinary range of fossil types and geologic contexts within NPS units. Many activities within the guide also address the scientific significance of fossil resources found within parks. 

The activities in the guide were developed with accessibility and adaptability in mind, utilizing a range of images, videos, and other NPS resources so it is suitable for use in a variety of formal and informal educational settings—from classrooms to visitor centers to virtual programs. Many activities also make use of 3D photogrammetry models of NPS fossils that are part of a collection originally managed by NPS, and which is now curated by AGI. Each activity aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards to help educators relate NPS fossils to earth science topics and skills, such as past life forms and environments, conducting fieldwork and using models, and temporal and spatial thinking.  

The guide is also aligned with select United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a means to make connections between specific examples of fossils and other real-world concerns and contexts such as education, careers, environmental conditions, and stewardship. By introducing foundational paleontological concepts through the use of examples from national parks, the guide empowers users to see fossils as both scientific data and as vital parts of America’s natural heritage that is being preserved for the benefit of future generations. The guide also contributes to the NPS’s ongoing commitment to advancing paleontological resource management through partnerships that foster education and public engagement.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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