Junior Paleontologists

Over the past year, the kids at Garrison Elementary School have been working on their Junior Paleontologist badge from the National Park Service. (You can download the book here.) This is a free program, but it takes a bit of work. So about every month, the kids did different activities from the booklet and learned about how fossils are made, what paleontologists do and what kind of tools they use, different creatures that lived in different times, and more.

 For one activity, they made fake fossils by creating impressions in some home-made playdough. They had a chance to be creative and decide what they would make.


For the last session, a real paleontologist came to the class. He did a great explanation of geologic time by having the kids envisioning that the room was filling with water. As he raised his hand to show where the water was, the kids raised their hands.

 The water kept getting deeper and deeper as the earth aged, but even at the height above their heads, there were no fossils. The fossil record didn't start until just a couple feet from the ceiling. Now that's a different time scale!

 Once we got into the fossil record, Gorden had some fossils to show, and the kids loved taking a look.

Then came the fun part: all the kids received their Junior Paleontologist badges, complete with a dinosaur on it.

Most national park units have their own Junior Ranger program, but this is one that is nationwide and can be done anywhere. We have great paleontological resources in Snake Valley, and now the kids know a little more about what used to live here and how it has been preserved.