What I have Learned So Far! -Iris A.

When I first thought about digging in the Red Beds, I imagined that the ground would be flat and the rocks would all look the same. But in reality, the field was an endless, bumpy ground, full of cactus and fossils. I learned a lot on this trip. One of the main things was learning how to disguise a bone and rock. A way to tell the difference is if you lick a bone it will be sticky due to the pores it has, but a rock will not be sticky. Another thing I learned is what an actually site looks like, and I got the opportunity of digging up some bones. I learned about different pre dinosaurs as well, such as the Dimetrodon. It was weird, but I also adjusted to be in a small town with very few people, unlike Houston. We talked with people in the museum, which helped me understand more what I learned in Seymour. Even though I was very tired at the end, I had a lot of fun! 

On Thursday morning, we headed for the Whiteside Museum. The Whiteside Museum is the only natural science museum in Seymour, and an associate with HMNS. It has an amazing lab with great equipment and fantastic pre-dinosaur fossils. Dr. Bakker and David Temple gave a brief lecture about the different pre-dinosaurs seen in the museum. Dr. Bakker explained what projects they were working on. A local paleontologist, Chris, told us about one of his projects he was working on as well. Dr. Bakker informed us about the dangers we could encounter while digging for fossils. Afterwards, we headed to a site, where we went to the spoil pile. The spoil pile had left over bones and fossils that could be found. We used tools which included dental tools, small shovels, etc. Some students also worked in jackets that had different fossils inside. It was a hard yet fun day; we learned a lot!

Take one of the slogans of The Party and analyze its meaning (WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH). What is The Party trying to get the people to believe?

"Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." (Page 34) 

The Party is trying to get people to believe that the people who control now, know what the past is. This quote can be a tad bit confusing but Winston mentions that the Party controls the past. The Party makes up a past and Winston believes that they are lying. For example, on page 36, he says that the Party lies about inventing airplanes. The first part of the slogan is somewhat true. It's true because what you do now will later affect you. So, you control your future with what you did in your past.