Hamburg area children went on a dinosaur digging expedition with paleontologists Michael and Roberta Straka during their Dinosaur Dig program on July 13.
Held at First Reformed Church, young readers from the Hamburg Public Library Summer Learning Program learned what Roberta and Michael do as paleontologists, including working at dig sites to discover fossilized dinosaur bones and other evidence of prehistoric dinosaur life. Children were particularly excited when they literally dug for fossilized dinosaur bones.
“Our hope, primarily, is to get them fired up about science… get interested in geology or biology or some related science,” said Mike after the program, noting that paleontology is a fairly small field of science. “Who doesn’t like dinosaurs? Dinosaurs tend to fire the imagination.”
This summer’s library theme is Libraries Rock and Dinosaur Dig seemed a good fit.
“Any time you can combine an activity and some learning, because we slipped a little of that in today, it’s a home run,” said Michael.
The children had a chance to be junior paleontologists by digging for their own real fossilized dinosaur bones that the couple had previously dug up in South Dakota. Each pair of children used brushes to uncover dinosaur bones buried in a container of sand. Then, using their discovered pile of fossilized bones, they placed bones on a dinosaur outline so they could build their own dinosaur.
“I wanted them to have fun and I wanted them to learn and not know that they were actually being taught something,” said Roberta. “I wanted to engage them and I wanted them to be enthusiastic about science. I wanted them to explore the world that I love and that Michael loves and just have fun.”
The program encourages the audience to use their imagination and be interactive, be inquisitive and participate, Roberta said. They build a lot of interaction into the program including the Mystery Fossil Game, magic and the opportunity to touch real fossils.
“I hope that some of them go into science,” Roberta said. “There’s a huge avenue that they can explore in the world of science and go into a career in science. I want them to know they can go into science. They can be scientists.”
Both Michael and Roberta agree that they had a great day in Hamburg.
“It seems like the kids learned a lot and we brought their excitement and love for dinosaurs to them today and I think that was just an amazing experience for all of them,” said Roberta.
Hamburg Public Library Children’s Librarian Donna Sweigert thought the Dinosaur Dig program was excellent.
“The kids really loved it and they had real bones. It was a well done program,” said Sweigert. “(Berks County Libraries) renamed the Summering Reading Program the Summer Learning Program and I think the children certainly learned a lot about dinosaurs at this program and they saw what dinosaur bones look like, real bones.”
