Outreach

Discovery Trunks

Teaching toolboxes

Discovery Trunks are teaching toolboxes for Indiana educators. Each trunk helps users explore Indiana's unique geology with themes ranging from geologic time to rocks and minerals. Lessons and activities are designed to match Indiana Academic Standards, making them ideal teaching aids to integrate with classroom activities.

Trunks are available to K-12 educators, homeschool groups, libraries, scout troops, or other groups engaged in educational programming with a $50 cash or check deposit. The trunks may be borrowed for a maximum of four weeks, and must be picked up and returned in Bloomington.

Trunk Request

Available trunks

The Rocks of Indiana Discovery Trunk contains the following materials:

16 bags with hand samples of quartz, gypsum, calcite, dolomite, sandstone, conglomerate, fossiliferous limestone, oolitic limestone, micritic limestone, dolostone, shale, chert, dolostone, and gneiss
Binder with object descriptions and lesson plans
16 laminated rock identification charts
16 bottles of dilute hydrochloric (HCL) acid
16 steel nails
16 hand lenses
Copy of Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks and Minerals book
Copy of What Can You Do with a Rock? book
Copy of Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the Midwestern US book
Optional add-on: Cupcake Mining kit

The Fossils of Indiana Discovery Trunk contains the following materials:

Authentic specimens of brachiopod, bivalve, crinoid, blastoid, gastropod, cephalopod, colonial coral, horn coral, trilobite, branching bryozoan, fenestrate bryozoan, fern, and coprolite fossils
16 bags with fossil 3D prints
Binder with object descriptions and lesson plans
16 laminated fossil identification charts
Copy of Smithsonian Handbooks: Fossils book
Copy of Fossils for Kids book

The Earthquakes of Indiana Discovery Trunk contains the following materials:

Disaster preparedness kit with a backpack, first aid kit, non-perishable food, water, money, tent, poncho, waterproof matches, toilet paper, solar-powered radio, hand-cranked flashlight, and a multipurpose tool
Binder with object descriptions and lesson plans
Seismic wave simulator
Foldable fault blocks
6 laminated copies of Liquefaction Potential of Surficial Materials map
6 laminated copies of Earthquake Epicenters and Structural Features map
Copy of Central U.S. Earthquake Guide pamphlet
Copy of Tectonic Plates are on the Move book

The Ice Age Animals Discovery Trunk contains the following materials:

Fossil casts of a peccary skull, dire wolf skull, mammoth tooth, mastodon tooth, and giant ground sloth claw
Toy models of a peccary, dire wolf, mammoth, mastodon, and giant ground sloth
Binder with object descriptions and lesson plans
6 laminated copies of Large Animals from Indiana's Ice Age page
Copy of Ice Age Mammals of North America book
Copy of Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the Midwestern US book
Copy of Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Climate Change of the Midwestern US book

The Geologic Time Discovery Trunk contains the following materials:

Authentic specimens of trilobite, cephalopod, colonial coral, lycopod tree fossils
Casts of an Archaeopteryx and mammoth tooth
Binder with object descriptions and lesson plans
Laminated Geologic Timeline cards
6 laminated sets of Geologic Time Event cards
150-ft-long rope
Copy of A Pebble in my Pocket book

The Hoosier Riverwatch Discovery Trunk contains stream monitoring equipment from the Hoosier Riverwatch citizen science program. Volunteers who have completed the basic training course may request equipment to monitor wadeable streams. The trunk contains the following materials:

2 sets of magnifying lenses
2 sets of macroinvertebrate trays
2 laminated macroinvertebrate identification charts
Kick seine net
Aquatic D-net
2 measuring tapes
2 folding rulers
2 calculators
2 floaters
Nitrate/nitrate test strips
Orthophosphate test
Thermometer
pH test strips
Dissolved oxygen test
Turbidity Secchi disk tube
Optional add-on: Water Quality test meter