Upcoming Meetings

If you would like to receive monthly e-mail updates you can contact us

Monthly Meetings

It is recommended to join the club's e-mail list as there are occasional last minute changes to meetings and details about the guest speaker for a given month are not always available on the website. If you have joined the club's e-mail list you should receive about fourteen e-mails a year.

Time:

Meetings take place on the second wednesdays of each month from September to June.
Meetings official begin at 7:30pm, but doors are usually open earlier and some club activitites take place in the minutes prior to the presentation.

Location: Marion 0027 (sometimes 0028 - the neighboring room in the basement) at the University of Ottawa
Find us - Directions - Map - GPS -

Fall-back Location: World Exchange Plaza
Find us - Directions - Maps - GPS -

Announced schedule of speakers and meetings

September 14, 2011

- Brief documentary on Eocene Artic paleontology produced by the Canadian Museum of Nature and narrated by Dr. Natalia Rybczynski. We will then share on our collecting summer activities, discuss some future fossil trips for next year and show our discoveries. If someone wants to show or trade fossils, please feel free to bring your specimens.

October 12, 2011

- Bob Boisvert will talk about the sites he visited this summer in Alberta and British Columbia. There will be a slideshow as well and viewing of material he has collected.

November 9, 2011

- Adam Clough will present on Trilobites, providing an overview on them as a whole - what they are and where they fit in the scheme of evolution and paleontology in general (discussing subjects of morphology, stratigraphy, paleogeography, evolutionary theory, taxonomy, and where trilobites fit in the Cambrian "explosion" and the paleozoic fossil record). Read ahead: http://www.trilobites.info/

December 14, 2011

- Barbara Casson brings us a David Attenborough documentary entitled “First Life.” This is an excellent two-hour program on the epic story of the beginning of life on Earth from the much loved and respected naturalist, writer and broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough. Spanning billions of years, Attenborough's time-travelling narrative brings the reader face to face with the first animals that ever existed.

January 11, 2012

- Michael Leveille will present on “Life.” This is an ever amazing and puzzling subject.

February 8, 2012

- Freeform meeting - see below

March 14, 2012

- Chris Rochefort will bring and introduce another chapter from the series “Geologic Journeys” and Freeform meeting - see below

April 11, 2012

- Michael Davidson will talk about “The Ice Age in Canada and the Ottawa Valley.” From approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago there were several periods of glacial advance and retreat throughout North America. The maximum extent of the Wisconsin glaciation in North America was approximately 18,000 years ago, and this glaciation period came to an end as the ice retreated 10,000 years ago. This talk will discuss how these glacial periods affected terrain throughout Canada and, in particular, the Ottawa Valley.

May 9, 2012

- Field trip training, Freeform meeting (see below) and planning meeting/by-election: Elect the club executive

Freeform meetings allow a room for a mixture of other activities to take place:

- Fossil exhibits, identification and fieldwork tips.

- Book recommendations and access to the club library.

- Short presentations by members & documentary showing.

- Question answering and discussion - illustrated by a live internet connection and projector.

Field trips

Laprairie Brick yard
La Prairie, Quebec. (2.5 hrs travel time from Ottawa/Gatineau) In June or July we will visit the La Prairie Brick yard! This is a very kid friendly shale pit on the south short of Montreal. Every year we go we find about a dozen Flexicalymene trilobites and the occasional Triarthrus, and the enigmatic, rarely seen, Cryptolithus.
A second trip is currently planned for September 24 Contact the club form more information.

Minor trips
There is usually a second trip in the early fall (and occasionally at other times of year). These are generally organised in a very informal way as a result of people expressing interest. Contact us, if you want to be included in the notifications.

Everyone is invited. There is a $10 charge for non-members. It is possible to keep what you find.
For more information contact the club.

Recently Past Meetings (geologically speaking)

If you feel like receiving monthly e-mail updates you can contact the club