{"id":38829,"date":"2016-05-03T17:15:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T17:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=38829"},"modified":"2016-05-03T20:36:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T20:36:30","slug":"acc-students-get-hands-on-learning-with-rare-historical-fossils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/acc-students-get-hands-on-learning-with-rare-historical-fossils\/","title":{"rendered":"ACC students get hands-on learning with rare historical fossils"},"content":{"rendered":"

The call came unexpectedly, and in that moment Torvald Hessel\u2019s life took a turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t believe it. This is the story of life, and it was coming to my museum,\u201d says Hessel, ACC professor as well as co-founder and executive director of the Texas Museum of Science and\u00a0Technology (TXMOST). The museum opened a year ago in Cedar Park<\/a>.\"Dino<\/p>\n

The Genesis Exhibit is a rare collection of artifacts and fossils spanning\u00a0over three\u00a0billion years from the\u00a0first cells and\u00a0earliest invertebrate marine life, through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous dinosaurs\u00a0and beyond.\u00a0For years it traveled the world, but its owner wanted to find it a permanent home. He wanted it to be in Hessel\u2019s hands at TXMOST, and he was donating it, free of charge.<\/p>\n

In a matter of days trucks filled with the ancient artifacts rolled into the parking lot at TXMOST.<\/p>\n

\n

Watch ACC students help prepare prehistoric exhibit<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cJanuary 29, 2016, that day is burned in my head,\u201d says Tanya Laird, director of collections and management at TXMOST and an ACC alumna. \u201cWe started unloading. It was just boxes and boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DinoThe boxes filled the warehouse. Without full documentation of what was inside each container, Hessel and his modest-sized staff needed help.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery box that we opened up was a total surprise,\u201d says Hessel. \u201cThey were labeled pots and pans or clothes. We never knew what would be inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hessel turned to the students at ACC, inviting his class and others to a hands-on learning experience working with the museum staff to sort and catalog the exhibit for display.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t say no to the opportunity. Anything that I can get my hands on to help visualize what we\u2019re learning makes for a better learning experience\u201d says Kevin Schulte, ACC student. \u201cIt starts to click more than just the lecture notes or the reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dino\u201cWhere else can you get an experience to actually see this from its inception to going out on the museum floor?\u201d says Hessel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see everything before it becomes the final product,\u201d says David Serrato. \u201cIt\u2019s what we\u2019re studying in the classroom suddenly laid out before our eyes. It\u2019s the most hands-on experience you could ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The volunteer opportunities are available to all ACC students. For more information contact ACC Geology professor Ron Johns at 512-223-6002 at rjohns@austincc.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the exhibit, visit txmost.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The call came unexpectedly, and in that moment Torvald Hessel\u2019s life took a turn. \u201cI didn\u2019t believe it. This is the story of life, and it was coming to my museum,\u201d says Hessel, ACC professor … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3556,"featured_media":38836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,17,19,1],"tags":[933,934,940,938,183,935,936,937,939],"class_list":["post-38829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-community","category-current-students","category-news-and-announcements","category-students-and-alumni","category-updates","tag-dinosaur","tag-exhibit","tag-genesis-exhibit","tag-hands-on","tag-learning","tag-texas-museum-of-science-and-technology","tag-torvald-hessel","tag-txmost","tag-volunteer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}