[IDZ/Teen] July 16th
I never really knew much about fossils. I was able to get familiar with some of the animal names and the types of animals there are. Also, I learned about how the Field Museum prepares fossils. I never knew that it required so many man hours to just prepare a single fossil. The third thing I learned was that fossil diggers sometimes have a doctor with them. It never really occurred to me that paleontologists could get severely hurt on digs.
My favorite experience was the skits and plays we did. It was fun to act out on the spot with very little time to prepare. I think it really united us as a group because we had to work together to get our message across. In second life I enjoyed the fossil digging as I learned how tedious of a task it was to dig up fossils.
A new skill I learned over the past two weeks was to use Second Life as a tool to unite two "classrooms". I didn't think it was possible to successfully accomplish the task but it was done with rather ease, despite the internet connectivity issues. In the future I could see actual schools using Second Life in order to get a teacher's message across more easily and to unite different classrooms around the world.
Second Life allows for activities to be done that are not normally done in a classroom. For example the fossil digging. For a normal classroom it would probably be impossible for the students to go out and just dig fossils outside. With Second Life we were able to dig up fossils and not have to worry about the real life issues that come along with it. A bad thing about Second Life is that it can sometimes be rather difficult to learn. The program has a rather steep learning curve. Learning how to build takes time and patience, something most classrooms don't always have.
