On Thursday, October 25, 2001, BLM and the Museum of Northern Arizona co-hosted the first-of-its-kind "Share the Adventure! Discovering Dinosaurs" live satellite broadcast from BLM's National Training Center studios in Phoenix. Geared to middle-school science students, the interactive educational broadcast focused on the excavation and laboratory study of a Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaur fossil from Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
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| Students from St. Theresa's Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona, participated in the satellite broadcast. |
Although pre-registration was not required for participation, as of the broadcast date approximately 60 classes around the nation had registered. The companion educator's guide was made available to teachers in both spiral-bound hard copy and a printable online version.
As part of the broadcast, paleontologists from both BLM and the Museum of Northern Arizona provided background and insights and answered questions posed by Phoenix schoolchildren in the studio audience, as well as kids from other areas, who asked questions and participated in games via toll-free telephone and/or fax. To accommodate schools in all U.S. time zones, two live, one-hour broadcast sessions were offered. Washington Office BLM-ers were able to watch the broadcasts, and several BLM field offices also hosted viewings.
One BLM staff member joined a class in Arlington, Virginia, to observe student reactions in person, while a second staff member assisted with studio production in Phoenix. Schools in seven states reached the studio by phone and fax, with several states represented by several schools and/or more than one class. Teacher evaluations — so far, very positive — began to arrive at BLM within minutes of the end of the second broadcast. These evaluations will help to guide the design of future broadcasts on other public lands topics.
