Educational Resources
“Science is REAL.”
— They Might Be Giants
Children’s Book Nearly Complete!
We are excited to publish (on-line and in print) a children’s book about Western Australian mammals, and the adventures of the iconic quokka!
Coming soon!
DeSantis helped develop the Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
DeSantis consulted on the new fossil hall at the Smithsonian.
Sing Along!
Augie Phillips, former Vanderbilt student and member of the Vanderbilt Melodores (an a capella group that won NBC’s The Sing Off) wrote this song about the Miocene which communicates the content in Thure Cerling and co-authors 1997 Nature paper about C4 grassland expansion, a class project. Miocene, the song, is based on the Sam Smith song, Stay with Me.
It’s amazing!!!
Fun Songs to Sing!
We did not develop these or play any role in their development, we just like them and hope you do to! Thanks to They Might be Giants!
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group I Am a Paleontologist · They Might Be Giants · Danny Weinkauf Here Comes Science ℗ 2009 Walt Disney Records Released on: 2009-09-22
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Science Is Real · They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science ℗ 2009 Walt Disney Records Released on: 2009-09-22
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Photosynthesis · They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science ℗ 2009 Walt Disney Records Released on: 2009-09-22
Student Authored Children’s Books
A fun adventure that communicates Christine Janis and co-authors 2000 PNAS paper titled, Miocene ungulates and terrestrial primary productivity: Where have all the browsers gone?
Meet G.A.B.I. is a children’s book aimed to communicate the core concepts of the Great American Biotic Interchange to elementary to middle school aged students. The book includes a more scientifically literate summary article, references, and a definitions bank as well as the narrative itself. The goal of this format is to educate not only a young reader through the primary narrative, but adults as well.
Student Authored Activities
In this coloring book, each page features a statement that provides information on the K-T extinction and either a related image to color or a related activity. The information in each statement is intended for a student in elementary or middle school to comprehend.
The goal of this project was to create a lesson plan for sixth grade science teachers (or more broadly 4-8th grade) to introduce the Great American Biotic Interchange. This lesson plan follows the standards presented in the Next Generation Science Standards.
Student Developed Pod Casts
These are fun pod casts that are fictitious. While the content is largely accurate, the interviews are fake. These are meant to be fun, creative, and entertaining while also touching on important content regarding Earth’s history. All student developed pod casts were created as part of Vanderbilt courses, either Life through Time or Ecology, Evolution, and Climates through Time.
What happened during the Great Biotic Interchange? Why?
What if I told you that the first diverse communities in the history of the world to build complex structures weren’t humans?
Hello there paleo-people! We’ll be taking a dive back into the Devonian to look at the bite of a famous bus-sized, marine monster.
Head, shoulders, knees, and fins. Knees and fins? Have I been singing this wrong since kindergarten?
Hey there dinosaur lovers! You know, I've recently been learning a lot about dinosaurs and I've come to the realization that the big and/or scary looking ones get all of the attention. Well, I'm hear to tell you about one that was quite the opposite of this - a dwarfed herbivore.
Breaking news! A research team led by Philip Gingerich has made an incredible discovery! A new species linking modern day whales with there prehistoric relatives has been found hidden among the green shale of Pakistan.
Every year since I was a kid my father gave me one of those expandable water toys in our stockings. I remember wondering about real animals. What regulates and limits a mammal’s growth? Recent research into the largest known mammal that ever lived can give us some insight.
I want you to picture Megalodon, the star of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and crowned the largest shark to have ever lived.
Imagine you are an early human, living during the last Ice Age. Everything’s different—but there’s one thing you know for sure—there are some pretty scary predators out there.
Hello and welcome to 201.7 radio and science show. Our top story tonight - Does relative brain size hurt or improve the chances of going extinct in mammals?
Paleo-Camp!
Hear students in the 2009 summer junior paleontology field camp, led by DeSantis while at the Florida Museum of Natural History, describe what they love about searching for fossils at Rattlesnake Creek in Gainesville, Florida.
Get out and Discover the world around you!
Relevant Papers (Educational Activities)
DeSantis, L.R.G. §, DeSantis, D.T. 2017. Experimenting with extinction: A multi-disciplinary investigation into ancient cat extinctions. The Science Teacher 84 (2): 49-55
Published in the special evolution themed issue in honor of Darwin Day. See video explanation about the aims of the paper.
DeSantis, L.R.G. § 2009. Teaching evolution through inquiry-based lessons of uncontroversial science. The American Biology Teacher 71(2): 106-111 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1662/005.071.0211)
Published in the special evolution themed issue in honor of Darwin Day.
DeSantis, L.R.G. § 2009. Straight from the mouths of horses and tapirs: using fossil teeth to clarify how ancient environments have changed over time. Science Scope 32(5): 18-24
DeSantis, L.R.G. § 2007. Clarifying tropical cyclone activity in centuries past. Science Teacher 74(6): 78-84
