Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 3, “Finding “Faults” in Media: The Geology of Disaster Movies” (7th-8th)
Good afternoon, SAVY Parents! We are more than halfway through our session! Today was focused on Earth’s history and the evolution of life. We went through all 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history together and then played a game using the names of the geologic time periods. We watched clips from two Ice Age movies and Jurassic Park before we had some time in the morning to work on their final projects. The students were able to prepare for the final project research in the afternoon when they had access to iPads and could look up facts online to help ensure that their movie was as accurate as possible.
After lunch, we did an exercise on faunal succession and thought about whether the species represented in the Ice Age movies could have all lived at the same time realistically (SURPRISINGLY, we found that they could not). Later in the afternoon, the students worked diligently on their final projects. There are some very creative thinkers in our group, and I am excited to see what their final movies end up as! Having the iPads meant that they could fact-check their ideas and make sure to include as much science as possible.
Last for the day, we read excerpts from two articles about the “de-extinction” of the dire wolf. We talked about the ethics of de-extinction and whether we should choose to bring back species from extinction. The students also thought about whether de-extinction efforts today are the same or different from what we see in Jurassic Park.
To continue engaging your students, you can chat with them about these topics:
- Ask them to tell you about the work that Colossal Biosciences has done regarding Dire Wolves and other species. Do they think that what Colossal is doing is actually de-extinction?
- If humans cause a species to go extinct, is it up to us to bring it back? What would be the pros and cons of this?
- Do you think there could be unintended consequences of bringing species back from extinction, and what might they be?
I hope that you all have a great evening, and I will see your kids tomorrow!
Best,
Dr. Rodgers
