MUNCIE, Ind. – A group of Burris Laboratory School students trade their books for picks and shovels Sept. 28-29 during a visit to a working dinosaur quarry.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Burris and Chicago's McDowell Public School are the focus on an electronic field trip televised via satellite and on the Internet to schools around the country from the Morrison Formation in Colorado and Utah.

The students will join educators, scientists and volunteers in the actual discovery and excavation of dinosaur fossils.

Participating students include fourth graders Peter Coleman and Brandon Stamp, and fifth graders Emily Brown and Elizabeth Retchford. Renee Huffman, a Burris teacher, is directing Burris' students.

Ball State's Insite program is coordinating the interactive, distance learning project through an educational partnership with The Field Museum in Chicago. The project seeks to bring museum scientists, research facilities and collections into classrooms nationwide through satellite broadcasts, Webcasts and on-line resources and activities.

Major funding for the program is also provided by Best Buy Children's Foundation.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to receive a first hand experience of paleontology," said Mark Kornmann, director of the Insite outreach programs. "At the same time, we are broadcasting this to schools all over the country, which will provide a tremendous educational experience for students."

"Dig It!" is the first in a three-part educational series of electronic field trips called "Diggin' UP Bones." Broadcast times are 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. (C.S.T.) The second and third parts will be televised next year.

Students participate in the field trips interactively through phone calls and e-mail.

Cost to schools is $75 per electronic field trip or $150 for all three. The field trips will also be available on VHS videocassette.

For more information about the program, visit the Web site or contact Insite by e-mail at insite@bsu.edu or toll free at 1-800-316-3163.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Kornmann at (765) 285-8106. Huffman may be contacted at (765) 289-6372.)