Paleontology Adventure 2

We are so excited for our sixth week of camp, and hope you are too! You can use this blog to follow some of the camp happenings going on at the Museum and beyond. Please be sure to check the blog again on Friday to see some pictures from the week!

Here are some suggestions of what to ask your children about at the end of each day!

Monday:
            Ask me how to tell if an animal is a dinosaur.

Ask me about some dinosaur extremes that we learned about!
Tuesday:
            Ask me how a dinosaur fossil forms.
            Ask me about the fossil art that we made!
Wednesday:

Ask me what we saw on the 2^nd floor tour!

            Ask me about the gastrolith demonstration we saw.

Thursday:
            Ask me about the dinosaur tracks!
            Ask me about the T-Rex footprint we traced.
Friday:
            Ask me about what kind of fossils we talked about on our fossil hunt!
            Ask me about the Junior Paleontologist activity we did.

Archaeology Quest 2

We are so excited for our sixth week of camp, and hope you are too! You can use this blog to follow some of the camp happenings going on at the Museum and beyond. Please be sure to check the blog again on Friday to see some pictures from the week!

Here are some suggestions of what to ask your children about at the end of each day!

Monday:
            Ask me about how archaeologists determine out how old artifacts are.

Ask me about the time capsules we made!
Tuesday:
            Ask me about the Roman Soldier presentation we saw at the Kelsey Museum.
            Ask me about the game of knucklebones we played!
Wednesday:

Ask me about John and Lisa, two U-M Museum of Anthropology archaeologists who talked to us today!

            Ask me about the “grave goods” we looked at.

Thursday:
            Ask me about what we saw on our tour at the Kelsey Museum!
            Ask me about the cylinder seals we made.
Friday:
            Ask me about the rock art we made!
            Ask me about the tools used to hunt mastodons.

Paleontology Adventure 1

Our first week of Paleontology camp has been great! We have been learning all about Prehistoric Life.

On Monday, we checked out dinosaur sizes by drawing a T-Rex and an Apatosaurus on the sidewalk outside of the museum. We also learned about the basic building blocks that form dinosaur names and their meanings. Afterwards, we created our own dinosaur and named it using the Greek and Latin bases we learned about!

The head of the Apatosaurus

Our amber

Tuesday, we discussed geologic time periods. We took a tour of the ‘Life Through the Ages’ exhibit on the second floor, and we made a timeline outside using the periods and animals we learned about on our tour. On Tuesday, we also made our very own amber using glue, food coloring, and plastic ants.

The Smilodon for the Timeline

John working on making his amber.

On 

Wednesday, we looked inside the museum’s special fossil drawer and learned about how fossils form. We were even able to touch some real fossils such as a dinosaur coprolite and gastroliths! Using plaster and trilobite molds, we created our very own casts to take home! We also did an experiment that recreated the La Brea Tar Pits and demonstrated the excellent animal preservation that occurred.

Thursday, we talked about the differences between Mammoths and Mastodons. We also had a presentation on the hunting of mastodons and created casts of clovis points to take home with us. 

 

Did you survive?

During the Extinction of the Giant Animals Game we each pretended to be a different species of animal. In order for our species to survive, we had to collect a certain number of water, food, and space tokens.  This game demonstrated the two main theories of the extinction of Megafauna during the Ice Age (overpopulation and destruction of the environment).

Playing the Extinction Game

 

  

Turner's group putting together the Stegosaurus.

 


On Friday, we learned about paleontology. We dug for wooden dinosaur bones in a sand pit using brushes to carefully brush away the dirt just as a real paleontologist would. We then took the pieces we found and assembled a 3-D Stegosaurus. We also created dioramas to display in a museum using small models of dinosaurs!







 

Look at that dinosaur habitat!

Archaeology Quest 1

Our first week of Archaeology camp has been great! We have been exploring many ancient civilizations and even got to visit another museum on campus!

Classifying the items from the "doohickey" kits!

On Monday, we explored the excavation process by gridding our own Archaeology site. We learned about how archaeologists locate artifacts within a site by dividing it up into grid units, and how the locations of artifacts can help us determine their use. We also did some classification activities! We classified artifacts from a mining camp and from a "doohickey" kit. Classification helps archaeologists to determine the relationships between objects and the culture they belonged to.

Sketching the gridded site.

Classifying the items from our "doohickey" kits!

Making a grid of our dig site!

Learning about mummies at the Kelsey Museum!

On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and talked about Egypt. We saw a mummy presentation, where we learned about the mummification process and the importance of preserving bodies in Egyptian culture. Then we took a tour of the gallery and made our very own Hieroglyphic scrolls!

Learning about mummies at the Kelsey Museum.

Charlie's name in hieroglyphics.

Making our hieroglyphic scrolls.

On Wednesday, we saw a Planetarium Show about the stars of the Egyptian pharaohs. Then we learned about and built the Great Pyramid of Khufu!

Roni's group putting together their pyramids.

The finished product!!

Finding different mythological "monsters" on the scavenger hunt!

On Thursday, we braved the art fair and went back to the Kelsey Museum, but this time we learned about Ancient Greece! First, we saw a Greek Mythology presentation where we learned about the Greek gods. Then we went on a Scavenger Hunt in the galleries and saw all sorts of “monsters” from ancient civilizations! Finally, we ended our visit by making Medusa headdresses.

Making the Medusa headdresses.

 

The discuss throwing event.

On Friday, we participated in our own Greek Olympics, complete with a Javelin (Straw) Throw, Long Jump and Chariot (Wheelbarrow) Race! Then we learned about Greek Pots and designed our own.

The straw Javelin throw.

Miles running for his team in the "race in arms" relay race.

The relay race!

The wheelbarrow chariot race!

Zaynah and her beautiful Greek Pot!

Looking at traditional Greek Pots while designing our own!

We had a great week learning about archaeological processes and ancient civilizations, and are excited to see some budding junior archaeologists!