Solomon Elementary October 2, 2000

Room 117 at Solomon was our Classroom of the Week 10/2!

The fourth grade classroom 117 of Solomon Elementary consists of eighteen boys and eleven girls of multicultural backgrounds. They enjoy reading, science, dinosaur study, class discussions on many topics, bugs, jokes, helping others, playing football and jumping rope. They love computers. Seventeen of them think they might grow up to be scientists, while others are astute mathematicians, with some definite future authors in the group as well. All around they are very nice people who are good sports and love challenges.

More Information:
Donna Goode (Classroom Teacher)

Solomon Elementary

Hannah G. Solomon School
6206 N. Hamlin Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60659

Solomon is a small elementary school (kindergarten through eighth grade and special education) of about 450 students. Located in a quiet residential neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, it has a multiracial, multiethnic staff and student body. The student population is compromised of about 37% white students, 23% black, 12% Hispanic, and 28% Asian/Pacific Islander. About 55% of our students are from low-income backgrounds. About 26% of our students have limited English proficiency requiring bilingual services; in fact, more than thirty world languages are spoken by the students and/or their families. Additionally, more than two-thirds of the students are bused so our school community extends far beyond the Peterson Park neighborhood in which it is located. Solomon has long been known for its special education inclusion program, and our one-story building makes us an inviting site for a number of students with physical handicaps.

Academically, the school report card indicates that many students met the standards for ITBS and others scored above the norm. The following are the results for Spring 2000:

3rd Grade:	Math 68.8% above the National Norm Reading 81.3% above the National Norm
6th Grade:	Math 81.5% above the National Norm Reading 75% above the National Norm
8th Grade:	Math 75% above the National Norm Reading 75% above the National Norm

Our Five Questions

1.What is the most rewarding thing about being paleontologist? The most difficult?

Posted by Expedition Team on Oct-12-00, 03:38 PM (CST)
The Rewards:
Getting to do what I love best all the time - Rudyard Sadlier
Not having a boss - Hans Larsson
Not having to wear a tie and getting to be dirty - Dave Blackburn
Getting to travel - Greg Wilson
Digging up bones - Jack Conrad
Discovering new things, being creative and traveling - Paul Sereno

The Difficulties:
Digging up bones - Jack Conrad
Working in desert conditions- Chris Sidor
Explaining what I do and how it helps people - Hans Larsson
Getting a job after all of the training - Rudyard Sadlier
Managing to do everything - run expeditions, write, teach, make public presentations - in such a short period of time. - Paul

2. What is the largest fossil or bone you have found so far on this trip, and what did it belong to? How old is it?

Posted by Expedition Team on Oct-12-00, 03:40 PM (CST)
The largest single bone we have found so far is the Oranosaurus femur (you might be able to find a picture of it on the website). Just this one bone is about four feet long and weighs about 200 pounds. Like the other fossils we've found while working out of Camp 1, the femur (thigh bone) is 110 million years old.

3. How old do you think the new little dinosaur Chris found is, and are you bringing it home?

Posted by Expedition Team on Oct-12-00, 03:39 PM (CST)
The dinosaur is 110 million years old - as are the other fossils we have found so far on this expedition - because they are all being found in the same formation. We are definitely bringing it home. We just loaded the jacket on to a truck. It weighed 300 pounds!

4. Did you have any luck finding the skull, or do you think you will?

Posted by Expedition Team on Oct-12-00, 03:41 PM (CST)
We did not find any parts of the skull, but there may a chance we collected some without knowing it. It might be hidden in the rock that we excavated or it might have weathered away. We won't know until we clean the rock off the skeleton.

5. How many fossils and bones have you found so far?

Posted by Expedition Team on Oct-12-00, 03:41 PM (CST)
We have collected hundreds of bones. Our official collection list has almost 400 entries, but some of those entries represent many bones. After spending a day loading all of our jackets onto a truck, we estimate that we have excavated 15 tons of fossils so far.

Wishing you all good health, great weather, and much success!!!!

Lesson Plan