Today we had a fun and exciting learning experience at Science World. Arriving via school bus we began our day in the visiting Dinosaur exhibit room. We were thrilled to see the life-sized models of some dinosaurs that we have learnt about – and some others that we hadn’t.
Triceratops is always a favourite as he is an herbivore but one who doesn’t let Tyrannosaurus Rex – the greatest meateater of the last era of the Dinosaur Age (the Cretaceous Period) – get the better of him.
We were not too surprised to see Velociraptor shown with feathers as we have learnt that our modern-day birds are descendents of the dinosaurs. Still, it is a little unnerving to think of a 6 foot tall meat-eating ‘bird’ running around!
When we were finished in the Dinosaur Room we went across the hall and spent some fun time exploring the Search Gallery. Students really enjoyed roaming around the beaver lodge and exploring inside the hollow tree. We met up with the other two divisions in the lunch room for our meal break.
We wandered up the long, long ramp (200 metres) to the Omnimax Movie Theatre where we enjoyed the large movie screen and the film Dinosaurs Alive! This film really explained how fossils were often trapped under soil due to monsoons, flash floods, or land slides. Some dinosaur remains were found in positions that showed they had been in a conflict situation at the time – i.e. two dinosaurs trapped together in mid-fight – or when they were protecting their nests of eggs.
After the movie we explored the Eureka! gallery, the Lego Exhibit, and the puzzle tables on the main floor before collecting our coats and heading outside to the bus. The students were well behaved and were very keen on the whole experience. All in all, it was a very fun and enjoyable day!
