Students Teaching Others Paleontology (STOP) is an eighth and ninth grade science project initiated for girls to explore, to interpret and to record the geological history along the U.S. Highway 45 corridor in Northeast Mississippi. The research fossil site is located approximately three miles from the Boonsville High School. This exploratory activity is novel and timely and will result in research experiences for students engaged in the fossil collections. These particular scientific discoveries of sixty million year old fossils will provide students with an enormous grasp of time space and access to specialized data which will help them to verify and classify the fossils. The site has been identified by geologists and geographers at Mississippi State University as unique. The enlargement of U.S. Highway through this area has made available exposures of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks that contain an impressive amount of fossil material. The fossil material is well preserved and contain species rarely seen in Mississippi or elsewhere. It has been evaluated by the department at Mississippi State University and deemed to be one of the more important in this region. A team of geologists from the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University will assist in removing and identifying the fossils. Scientists/Mentors from other agencies and universities will serve as role models for the women and minorities which Project STOP targets. The students' fossil collection will be preserved in their libraries and at the geology museum at Mississippi State University.
