Fossil Boxes
The Fossil Box Project
Creating boxes of fossils for educational use in the UK.
The Boxes
With 30 fossils in each box, it’s large enough for a typical class size.
Each box contains two insert trays, which include:
- 12 fossils of different types of common UK fossils
- 2 examples of each fossil in the box so the students can compare the 2 fossils
- 2 modern equivalents (bivalve and gastropod) allows the student to compare and contrast between the fossil and modern
- A trace fossil, coprolite as children love fossil poo
- Laminated pictures of each fossil and a text description, including its type and geological age
To order a box for your educational establishment, or to sponsor a box, or to donate your spare common fossils please email m.baggott@worc.ac.uk or call 01905 855184 and leave a message and we will get back to you.
The Fossils
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Only common UK fossils are used, which helps make the project as sustainable as possible, and everything in the box can be found by the students themselves
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Several of the fossils are partial or incomplete, which again is consistent with the student’s own likely ‘found-fossil’ experience
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Fossils have been donated from collectors across the UK and from old collections this keeps the box cost down, and helps to ensure ethical collecting
- Fossils used are not from Special Scientific Sites and if collected on private land, the landowners permission must have been sought
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All of the fossils used in the box come from a variety of different sites and geological epochs
Fossil Box Contents
What’s in the Box?
Each box contains laminated sheets for teachers use to enable the box to be an educational resource and tying into the National Curriculum
- Front cover contains the logos of all the supporting organisations that have made this box possible
- A list of the fossil types used, their age and location around the UK
- Information about fossils and how they are made
- Where to find fossils, what to look for, and health & safety in collecting
- A geological map of the UK, showing age of rocks and typical fossils found at each epoch
- Teacher ice-breaker questions and tasks
- Year 3 and Year 6 Primary School lesson plan suggestions
- Introduction to evolution
- Britain’s journey from the south pole
- Careers page, featuring four bios of people working in Earth Sciences
- A page of all the common UK fossils used in the box produced in partnership with GeoBus
- How Ammonite fossils are made, looking at the chemical process involved courtesy of the Salter’s Institute
- Each of the fossil descriptions are also available as audio files for partial sighted students
Fossil Box for Special Educational Needs Students
This version of the Fossil Box contains a smaller number of larger more tactile fossils suitable for young people with multiple learning difficulties.
Click images to enlarge.
Braille Box for visually impaired students
This version of the Fossil Box has a single tray of fossils, and this allows space for both a Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille booklet to describe the fossils in the box. Each of the fossils in this box is enclosed in a plastic bag and both the bag and the inserts have a braille letter to allow the fossil to be identified via the Braille booklet. A large print version of the descriptions in the Braille booklet is also enclosed to assist partially sighted students.
This approach allows the student to start from a closed fossil box and on opening the box to interact with the fossil material and then to be able to reassemble the box and replace the lid ready for the next user.
Click images to enlarge
Cost
All boxes are supplied at cost (£40 per box) to all educational establishments as a permanent resource for the school to keep
There are three main routes to obtain a box:
- A sponsored box, typically the main route for primary schools and funded by:
- Caregivers, family and friends of pupils
- Friends of the School and PTA
- A directly-purchased box, typically the main route for secondary schools and other organisations
- A free box, funded by donations and grants
Please note, as the project grows, we might expect waiting lists for free boxes to grow.
Priority for the free boxes is given to primary and special schools, so secondary schools may face a longer wait.
Grants have been received from the Curry Fund and the Paleontographical Society, as well as private donations which have enabled us help more schools
Order
If you are ready to order a fossil box
- Please make sure the school have been approached and are happy to receive a box and get a point of contact for receipt of the box, schools are busy places so our emails or calls can feel like spam
- Boxes are only available to educational establishments (primary, secondary, special and SEN schools, home schooling groups, museums and charities), families looking to order a box can do so for delivery to their local school
- Generally, schools are restricted to one box per school although schools with significant SEN numbers can request one standard and one SEN box
To order please email m.baggott@worc.ac.uk to talk through your requirements, and if needed to request an invoice.
If you are sponsoring a box and a UK taxpayer, we will ask you to consider completion of a gift aid form, so that you are sponsoring part of a second box for a school that can’t find a sponsor
Once the order is placed, we will arrange for delivery of the box either to you to deliver or direct to the school, please note we don’t post any of the boxes but instead play pass the parcel using volunteers so this can delay delivery of the box whilst we work out the best route for delivery.
Project Progress
The first box was delivered to a Herefordshire primary school in December 2022 and as at 20 Sept 2026 we have provided 242 boxes to schools across the UK:
- 179 to primary schools
- 13 to secondary schools
- 14 to SEN schools
- 2 to specialist schools
- 5 to home schooling groups
- 29 to educational charities including museums
- more are scheduled for delivery
Donated fossils continue to replenish stocks
EHT is building a network of volunteers across the UK to help deliver the boxes called Pass The Parcel
Further grant applications are planned to increase the number of free boxes we can deliver
All of the boxes are hand delivered, none are posted so this can cause a delay in delivery whilst we work out the best route for delivery, visit the Pass the Parcel page to find out where we need help with deliveries
Our emphasis is on increasing accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability making the box a better resource for schools this includes working with a SEND school to add additional materials based on symbol supported text
A rock and fossil box more suitable for secondary school syllabuses is on the future roadmap
Locations
Where fossil boxes have been delivered so far:
Want to be part of the Project?
- Boxes are manufactured in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, if you live locally to the project please get in touch
- If you would like a box for your local school, first contact the school to check they are happy to have a box and then consider becoming a sponsor
- Be part of the delivery network, all of the boxes are hand delivered, so delivery to schools can be a game of pass the parcel to get the box from Herefordshire/Worcestershire to final destination. So why not deliver a box as you visit friends and family or travel through work?
Our Pass the Parcel page shows where we currently need help with deliveries - Consider donating your spare common fossil material to the project, we will find a use for all donated material
- Around 20% of the boxes delivered also involve a talk to the children and we can assist you with talk materials for you to deliver your own talks
- Feel free to contact us by phone or email and provide feedback on the boxes and tell us what works, what doesn’t, what’s missing, and any other comments
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