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Think about scientific expeditions, and the epic journeys of Robert
Peary to the North Pole and Roy Chapman Andrews to the Gobi Desert
may come to mind. Has the era of scientific exploration ended? Have
machetes and sextants given way to satellites and test tubes? Is
science confined to the lab? Not at all. Scientific expeditions go
on all the time and remain essential to the process of discovery.
Technology now enables the public to follow the day-to-day struggles
and triumphs of scientists at work on mountaintops and under the
sea - quite an addition to the typical museum visit.
With a staff of more than 200 scientists, the American Museum of Natural History embarks on over 100 scientific explorations every year. Descriptions of some of these expeditions are now available online at the Museum's Expedition Web site. The images and stories from the field are fascinating, and the scientists' excitement for their work is highly contagious. |
| Whether their goal is to find clues to the extinction of the woolly mammoth in Northern Siberia or to discover fossilized dinosaur embryos in Patagonia, these expeditions offer rich learning experiences. Whether used on a daily basis or as one of several sites relevant to a curriculum unit, these online expeditions convey the excitement of the discovery process and the sense of working alongside the crew as it copes with storms and snakes, frustration and success. |
A large patch of fossilized dinosaur skin. The stripe of larger scales probably ran along the back of the embryo. Luis Chiappe | Lorraine Meeker © AMNH |
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Two other types of expeditions offer daily online audience
participation: Classroom Connect's Quest series and the Museum's
expeditions with Discovery Channel Online. The Quest program is a
series of five-week-long
biking expeditions by a team of educators and scientists who
travel the world to "unravel the greatest mysteries of all time."
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Students and teachers track each expedition through the
Quest Web
site. With each Quest, a curriculum guide for teachers is
provided. This guide includes lesson plans for the expedition,
tips from teachers who have used previous Quest programs,
background material on the relevant Quest, and a standards
correlation. One of the most exciting features is that classrooms
can interact each day with the scientific team via email
exchanges and Webcam footage.
Recent Quest teams have explored issues of biodiversity on the Galapagos Islands and in the American Southwest, Marco Polo's expeditions through Asia, Anasazi culture, and much, much more. This October, a Quest team will travel to Australia to explore the landscape and learn more about Aboriginal culture and the mystery of the destination. Students who participate in this process feel a real sense of empowerment. Their teachers report that the students feel that they're helping their classmates learn and explore, and also that their participation in the expedition is making a difference in the world. |
 What am I? A sample Mystery Photo from AmericaQuest that trekked across the American Southwest in Spring 2000. Hint: I am made of clay. Department of Library Services © AMNH 
| The Museum contributes to the Quest series with the Mystery Photo feature. This consists of an image (usually of an artifact or an animal), a question, and some clues. Students and classrooms research the question and submit their responses. The following day, a Museum expert posts the kids' submissions with an explanation of the Mystery Photo. One middle school in New Jersey gets the whole school involved by posting the Mystery Photos around the building and reading the clues over the announcement system. The Museum is also involved in the weekly Make a Discovery feature, which focuses on a scientific mystery. In addition, the Museum hosts a free Professional Development Day for teachers in New York City a few weeks before each Quest. The program helps teachers decide how to incorporate the Quest into the classroom. |
Wade Sherbrooke fills out his field notes at the Museum's Southwestern Research Center after a morning of horned lizard hunting. David Sanders © Discovery.com |
Other live expeditions featuring Museum scientists are available through Discovery Channel Online. Each live expedition runs for several weeks at a time. Students and teachers can follow the daily lives of research scientists in the field through photographic essays, voice recordings, and supplemental interactives. They can even email the experts. One recent expedition featured a group of scientists at the Museum's Southwestern Research Station in Arizona who were studying the behavior of lizards - one of which was a species of horned lizard that actually shoots blood from a sinus beside its eyes as a defense mechanism! Kids couldn't get enough of these creatures. Other Discovery Channel Online expeditions with Museum scientists are featured below. | 
Texas horned lizards have many horns, making it difficult for predators to eat them. These lizards are also known for "spitting" blood from their eyes, which is an excellent deterrent against coyotes, foxes and domestic dogs. David Sanders © Discovery.com |
General
Expedition Web site at the Museum
Other expeditions to note:
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© 2000 American Museum of Natural History