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Welcome!
Education Mission Statement
Welcome to the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site!
The Natural History Museum is dedicated to discovering, investigating, preserving, and interpreting regional biodiversity through time and to providing enjoyable, experiential educational programming for people of all ages. Disseminating the knowledge gained is accomplished through varied means (exhibitions, visual observation, and hands-on activities). Our programs are developed within three confines: Public Education Programming, Tourism, and Research and Higher Education opportunities.
PUBLIC EDUCATION PROGRAMMING
All tours and educational programs address the National Science Standards and concomitant state standards for Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. The education program includes on-site tours, classroom activities related to exhibits, workshops, afterschool/vacation activities, outreach programs, teacher in-service workshops, and scout badge programs.
The Natural History Museum offers unique experiences of an actual, working paleontological site which makes science, nature and history come to life. Traveling exhibits throughout the year offer a broad variety of experiences which enrich and enhance the curriculum standards not only for science, but social studies, math, and language as well.
We have provided a chart which identifies the strands of the National Science Standards matched for the different grade levels. Those marked with the diamond indicate the strand standards embedded within our Gray Fossil Site permanent exhibit and guided tour activities. Those marked with the star indicate additional strands which may be addressed by different traveling exhibits or temporary programs and activities. A general grade-range (K-4, 5-8, 9-12) chart of strand topics is also included.
Educators should check our museum website for particular information on exhibits and programs.
TOURISM
Tours for all ages are available at the Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site. The guided tours offer a more in-depth explanation of paleontological processes and the experience of an actual working fossil dig site. The museum offers lecture series and other activities relevant to exhibits and current events.
RESEARCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION
The Natural History Museum collaborates closely with East Tennessee State University and other researchers/scientists from around the country. Continued research and development of courses of study in the paleontological sciences and related sciences are part of the broad spectrum of benefits associated with the Gray Fossil Site.
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Our Site:
Scientists have discovered an entire ecosystem that existed on this site 4 to 7 million years ago. For the first time the world knows what the southern Appalachians looked like at the end of the time known as the Miocene Epoch.
Many of the plants and animals are extinct—others are still around, but not in eastern Tennessee. Some plants, like the oak and hickory tree, were part of the main diet for our Miocene animals and are still in the landscape today. Animals like the saber-toothed cat and pot bellied rhino are now extinct, but four species of turtle found in the Miocene world continue to lumber in our forests. The Gray site has provided the largest cache of tapir fossils any where in the world. Two new species, red panda and badger, have been discovered here..
The limestone bedrock—typical of Tennessee—led to the formation of a sinkhole which filled with sediment and water becoming a vibrant pond, rich in plants and animals. Like a magnet, this watering hole attracted a variety of animals. Some, like fish and frogs, lived at the pond permanently. Others, like rhinos, tapirs, and saber-toothed cats, visited from the surrounding forest to drink, swim, browse and hunt. Many died here leaving their bones for scientists to study. The fossil remains of the Gray site have been uniquely preserved by the rich organic matter that filled the sinkhole. As the climate changed, new ecosystems came and went. While Ice Age animals and humans moved in, the fossils, preserved in the sediment of the waterhole, waited centuries to be discovered.
Our paleontologists, staff, and volunteers have excavated thousands of specimens including alligators, camels, sloth, elephant, rhino, tapirs, peccary, and species totally new to science. The Gray Fossil Site is nearly five acres in size and 100 feet deep. There is plenty more to be discovered!
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