About 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian explosion, marine life rapidly diversified. Among the new species were animals with hard shells.

Many Longview Elementary fourth-grade students, taught by Mike Okumura, know this — and understand why it is important.

Longview Elementary teacher Mike Okumura teaches fourth-grade students how to crack shale. (Julie Slama/City Journals) 

These young scientists dig through layers of Wheeler Shale on their playground, uncovering fossilized trilobites that once lived in Utah’s House Range near Delta.

“It’s important to learn more about the past, as many fossils, and trilobites’ exoskeletons have led geologists to learn more about earth and what lived here,” said fourth-grader Savannah Gillis. “Mostly the trilobites ate along the ocean floor.”

Before the hammering of shale begins, Okumura gives students a lesson.

“I want them to learn about the fossils, and how it relates to now, where they came from, or why they are in the desert,” he said. “I tell them basically, they’re sea creatures, but then I ask: ‘Why do you have sea creatures in the desert? And what kind of creatures were they?’ They should know the reason because we can find evidence of things that happened millions of years ago.”

Fourth-grader Mia Roberson knows the desert was once a sea.

“They lived deep in the sea, swimming or crawling on the floor in the sand and mud, but we can’t find them anymore,” she said. “Nobody knows why exactly.”

Classmate Ollie Baxter described the trilobites they found, ranging from an eighth of an inch to two inches.

“These were tiny sea creatures; mine reminds me of a rolly polly, like plankton in the ocean, but I bet they can get as big as a bowling pin,” Ollie said.

Okumura encourages comparisons to a modern species.

“They’re related to our horseshoe crabs; both are marine crustaceans with three different parts to them, much like insects and spiders. Both the horseshoe crab and trilobite can roll up for protection,” he said.

On their playground, Longview students chip away at shale to look for fossilized trilobites. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

For 18 years, Okumura has partnered with U-Dig Fossils near Delta to bring shale to his students. A $500 grant from the Murray Education Foundation helped cover the cost of shale, goggles and tools in earlier years; now it’s used for the students’ shale.

“I was at Thanksgiving Point back then with my family and they were selling bags of shale so families could take it home and find a fossil. I talked to the U-Dig people then about doing it with my class, I was teaching at Liberty Elementary then, and I’ve pretty much been doing it with the entire grade since,” he said, noting exceptions were made when he taught first grade for a few years. “Rocks and minerals were in the state core for fourth grade, but now, it’s been changed the last few years to cover just a little bit of fossils, so we relate it to learning about the sea creatures that were once in Utah.”

Plus, he said, “This is fun, more hands-on and it saves the cost of taking another field trip.”

Fourth-grader Ezra Maley, who has hunted diamonds and geodes before, added: “You can find cool things in the shale — and we get to keep whatever we find.”

Classmate Dante Lee found a trilobite fossil.

“I’m having fun doing this; I’m going to have my parents display it,” Dante said.

 Fourth-grader Lindsey Tarkeshian also found one.

“I like rocks a lot,” she said. “My dad and I found a piece of petrified wood and gave it to my grandpa; maybe he’d like to see this.”

The class took turns breaking open shale for hours, which fourth-grader Makayla Shaffer called “really cool.”

“How many students get to do a science project that’s 500 million years old?” she asked. “This is so fun and interesting to see sea bugs who lived longer ago than dinosaurs.”