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Rock, Mineral and Fossil Presentations

In the late 1980’s, early 1990’s, a member of the Tehachapi Rock and
Mineral Society by the name of David Huff used to do Mineral
presentations for various Elementary Schools in the Tehachapi area.
David was a retired school teacher and he really loved doing these
presentations. Dave gave these presentations for free to enlighten the
minds of the youths of our community. I was honored to have known him
and donated numerous minerals to him for his presentations.   Dave
passed away in the 1990’s due to an illness and the program fell by the
wayside. Early in the 2000’s Bob Papac got together with friends and
business associates Rick Casey and Chuck Overall and resurrected the
program, expanding it from to a Rock, Mineral Specimen, and Fossil
presentation that includes hands on touching of things that range from
Meteorites, to various Mineral specimens, and Fossils such as Oreodant
Skulls, which is sheep-sized herbivore that lived in the Big Badlands of
South Dakota and the adjacent Nebraska area, Meteorite’s from Africa,
and Mineral Specimens and Fossils from around the world. The kids love
it. We have done presentations throughout the Central California area
and have had inquiries from other areas including Southern California,
specifically the North San Diego County area. Classes range from
Kindegarden to 8th grade, and we’ve done as many as 7 or 8
presentations over a Two (2) two day period. Most talks range from about
40-45 minutes, up to multi-hours, depending on the schools wishes. We’
ve even done presentations for Special After School programs such as at
Tompkins Elementary in Tehachapi, and a picture of us is featured on
their School district flier advertising their program.
We really enjoy doing these presentations and we usually start off with
Rick asking the students, what’s it worth (referring to the numerous tables
filled worth Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils). Of course, the kids love
throwing out their guesses ranging from $ 1.00 to “Zillions” of Dollars, and
eventually Rick informs them that its worth “NOTHING.” This usually
stuns them. Then the presentation continues with Rick explaining to the
students that all these beautiful items would not have a value UNLESS
you have one thing. KNOWLEDGE.   Rick, Chuck and I then take turns
continuing the talk to explain the various ways that minerals affect our
daily lives, their uses, the impact they have on us, and some of the
complexities involved in extracting things from them to make various
product. Obviously, this varies based on the age group of the students,
but all of them really enjoy the presentations.   Often times we try to give
out bags of tumbled rocks, fossils, etc. Which the students love. We do
this at no expense to the school, and over the years, I’ve probably given
out 10’s of thousands of tumbled rocks, numerous fossils, etc. We’ve
really had a great time doing it and we’ve been soliciting volunteers from
the Tehachapi Gem and Mineral Society to assist us in these
presentations.
For information on this program, I can be reached via E-Mail at:
getback@csurfers.net
Or at telephone at: (661) 821-7103 or Cell phone (661) 342-5589
Bob Papac