For Immediate Release
Monday, June 7, 2004
As a trade, it's not in the same league as when Brett Favre was traded for a draft choice. But it IS a significant trade that helps both sides.
The Madison School District and the UW - Geology Museum have agreed to exchange rock collections. The UW receives a priceless variety of precious and semiprecious stones that are best used for a permanent display, while the school district gets four new rock, mineral and fossil collections that are well-suited for learning purposes by middle schools and travel in between.
The MMSD is exchanging a lapidary collection created and donated many years ago by UW Professor Arthur Vierthaler to the Madison School District. The collection, surprisingly still intact, is a variety of polished precious and semi-precious stones. The Madison Gem and Mineral Club was the original keeper of the collection.
It was the vision of the Madison Gem and Mineral Club and the UW Geology Museum to some day display the collection at the museum. The three sons of Vierthaler have also been extremely supportive of the transfer of their father's legacy.
A Madison eighth grade teacher, Rachel Egan, found the lapidary collection stored in a school science cabinet. Egan contacted Don Vincent, a West High School Earth Science teacher, and Vincent called Rich Slaughter, director of the UW Geology Museum, and Klaus Westphal, emeritus director at the museum. Together with the district's legal counsel, they started a year-long process of writing a plan for an amicable exchange between the school district and the museum.
The museum would receive the lapidary collection to be used for select educational and display purposes. The collection would also be shown at a variety of gem and rock shows throughout the year. The district would receive a collection of more student-friendly rock, mineral and fossil collections to be used in conjunction with the district science scope and sequence.
The district received four large, heavy-duty carrying cases filled with rocks, minerals and fossils that were meticulously labeled and boxed by the UW - Geology staff and volunteers. Funding for the collection that goes to the district came from the Friends of the UW Geology Museum, with the sole purpose of supporting the development of educational materials for the Madison School District. Members of the Friends donated personal pieces from their private collections as well as purchasing some items to make the four sets complete. Middle school teachers and seventh grade children studying Earth History will use these new sets.
For more information, contact:
Ken Syke, 663-1903, or Joe Quick, 663-1902, or
Sue Johnson, MMSD, or Klaus Westphal, UW Geology Dept.
Public Information Office
545 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53703
608-663-1879
email: newsrelease@madison.k12.wi.us
Last Modified: 2004-06-07
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