The Bones - A Virtual Lab Web Seminar, produced in collaboration with the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and the University of Texas at Austin, was held on Wednesday, October 11, 2006, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. The presenters were Lauri Thompson, from the University of Texas at Austin and the eSkeletons web site, and from NSDL, Robert Payo, Education and Outreach Specialist. The presentation focused on the topic of bones and eSkeletons web site, a virtual laboratory, where educators and students can explore specimens online that are otherwise hard to access in the classroom, conduct comparative studies, and manipulate specimens with the help of digital tools. Resources available at the NSDL web site were also discussed.Thirty three (33) participants were present in addition to the presenters and the NSTA staff. Participating educators represented the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. One participant attended from Canada.

In this presentation educators had the opportunity to learn about the eSkeletons web site, a virtual laboratory, where bones specimens can be used by teachers and students in the classroom. The presenters used the example of primate locomotion and talked about the intermembral index and how this figure is calculated. The intermembral index provides information about the primate’s locomotion category (terrestrial quadruped, aboreal quadruped, clingers/leapers, suspensory, or bipeds) and the environment where it lives. Using the eSkeletons web site, students can select different bones to measure in order to determine the primate’s locomotion category. All participants received a copy of NSTA’s SciGuide on Organisms, grades 5-8.

Web Seminar: Bones - A Virtual Lab - Resources

Archive
See a recorded version of the Web Seminar.

PowerPoint Presentation

PC Download: To view online select link below to display in browser. To download PowerPoint slides to your desktop right click on the link below and select “save target as” from the drop down menu. MAC Download: To download PowerPoint slides to your desktop control + click on the link below and select “Save Linked File As…” Download File Web Seminar: Bones PowerPoint Presentation (6.66 Mb):Websites National Science Digital Library http://www.nsdl.org eSkeletons http://www.eskeletons.org Boneyard Science: Forensics http://expertvoices.nsdl.org this post copied from web page http://institute.nsta.org/NSDL/webseminar3.asp