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TO: Honorable City Council
FROM: Hugh R. Riley, Assistant City Manager
DATE: April 24, 2008 (Council Meeting of 5/7/08)
SUBJECT: Consider Progress Report on Development of Multi Media Education
Program about the Moorpark Mammoth Discovery
DISCUSSION
On March 29, 2005 William Lyons Homes, Inc. discovered a nearly complete, fully
fossilized skeleton of an ancient Mammoth (Archidiscodon meridianalis or Southern
Mammoth) during preliminary grading operations for their new 250-home residential
development in Moorpark. To preserve the fossils, the developer followed the
Paleontological Resources Salvage Plan required by the City of Moorpark last year. The
plan requires daily onsite inspections by a qualified paleontologist and gives the City the
option to retain ownership of the find. On April 20, the Moorpark City Council elected to
maintain ownership of the fossils in order to have some influence and control over the
ultimate disposition of the discovery.
In April 2007, the City Council elected to donate the entire fossil collection to the Santa
Barbara Museum of Natural History and on October 9, 2007 the collection was delivered
to the museum where work is now underway to prepare a public exhibit.
The City Council approved $15,000 in its Operating Budget for F.Y. 2007-2008 for the
development of a Multi Media Education Program. A proposal for the Program
Development was obtained from Amuseum, an educational services and special event
design and production firm. The Multi Media Class from California Lutheran University
has been working for the past six months to create and prepare materials for the
program.
Utilizing current information technology and techniques, this project will be the primary
tool for the delivery of the Mammoth story to public schools and libraries in the region.
The goal of the product is to tell this colossal animal's story, and to relate/connect the
information in the story to activities in several educational disciplines including the
sciences, math, language arts and art. Cal Lutheran University Multi Media Class
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Honorable City Council
May 7, 2008
Page 2
members and their Faculty Advisor, Tim Hengst will provide the Council with a brief
video report on their work on the project to date.
FISCAL IMPACT
No additional funding will be required for this project in FY 2007/08. Some of the
approved $15,000 may not be expended until FY 2008/09.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file report and visual presentation.
Attachment I: Project Description
ATTACHMENT I
Moorpark Mammoth Interactive Multimedia
Project
• The Moorpark Mammoth Interactive Multimedia Project is part of the overall
Moorpark Mammoth Promotion Project.
• Components of the project-- a table-top exhibit, book, promotional handouts
and a set of educational activities -- had been planned from the outset in 2005.
The exhibit is functional and is being used at fairs, festivals and off-site
presentations. A 20-page book was completed in 2006 and is entitled The
Mammoth of Moorpark: Big M. Handouts have been produced and distributed at
events.
• The outstanding component is a collection of educational activities for schools
and other education providers. Amuseum, the educational outfitting firm that has
completed several assignments for the Moorpark Mammoth Promotion Project,
has been working on its own initiative to develop and adapt the set of educational
activities; presently, many of the 20 — 25 separate activities are in a state of
partial completion.
• Proposed as an approach to completing this set of materials is an interactive
multimedia product — most likely a compact disc (CD) or digital video disc (DVD)
-- that would contain both the book and the related activities. There are several
advantages to this approach. It is technologically current, is user-friendly and is
quite inexpensive to copy and package. It also offers users (teachers and
students) many choices about what they (want to) teach and learn.
• Contents: The book, The Mammoth of Moorpark: Big M, lies at the core of the
materials, will be downloadable and will include a narrated audio version. For the
most part, the activities relate to the content of the book. They include many
subjects including natural science, physical science, mathematics, language arts,
history-social science, physical activity and art. The activities feature video clips;
audio clips; 3D animations; still images (as in slide shows or Power Point
presentations); read-only text, Internet website links, interactive educational
games and virtual tours.
• In addition to the contents of the disc, we will make allowances and plans to
offer new and additional material as a subscription to consumers as an ongoing
revenue stream.
• As a gesture of collaboration and cooperation, Amuseum will venture the
remainder of the cost of text development and part of the cost of project
supervision. Amuseum's share, therefore, will be $ 8,000 in development labor
and supervision.
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Moorpark City Council Meeting
May 7, 2008
The Southern Mammoth of Moorpark
Mammoth Multimedia Project
Multimedia Product & Website Development Showcase
Presented by
Multimedia Department
California Lutheran University
Thousand Oaks, California
Senior Student Development Team Members
• Bret Bays
• Chris Meierding
• John Atkinson
• Josh Banday
• Joey Lang
Tim Hengst, Director of Multimedia