[twitter]We took our annual Father’s Day camping trek to Dinosaur Provincial Park this weekend. But this one was a little different; we packed costumes along with our tent.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of the richest deposits of fossils on the earth. There are more Cretaceous fossils in this park than any other place on the planet, and it’s the most concentrated fossil find in the world. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the area just north of Brooks, Alberta, had a climate similar to the southern California coast. It was humid, there were lush floodplains, and there were dinosaurs. Lots of them. Now, we are left with the fossils, and no dinosaurs.
Okay, well a few dinosaurs pop up every now and again.
This is a very cool place to come and camp with the boys. The badlands of Alberta have lots of places to climb and explore amongst the hoodoos, and the chance to stumble into a fossil is always awesome. So when I was asked to shoot a video with the kids explaining what happened to the dinosaurs, I asked for a deadline extension to shoot it on our camping trip.
The assignment was to get kids to explain scientific theories and ideas. Our task was to talk dinosaurs and answer the question: “How did the dinosaurs die?” I was expecting a “kids say the darndest things” moment, and instead Zacharie and Charlie dropped some serious knowledge on me.
No prompting, no pre-explanations, just solid scientific theory from my boys. Okay, the asteroid didn’t hit Calgary, it landed in the Yucatan, but that is why the dinosaurs disappeared.
If you’ve seen Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey, you know Neil Degrasse Tyson does a very solid explanation of all things scientific, and while sometimes they might fly over our heads, there is still enough for parents and kids to sit on the couch and understand together.
If you want more of these great Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey moments, the Blu-Ray and HD Digital editions have been released. Grab them. Watch them with your kids. Learn together.
And the next time you go camping (or go to a museum with dinosaur skeletons), remember to pack along some costumes. As you can tell by how comfortable the boys were, this isn’t the first time we’ve done this 🙂
Disclosure: Fox Home Entertainment has sponsored the creation of this video and compensated me for my participation. As you can tell, this whole thing was unscripted and is kid awesomeness. Thanks to Fox Home Entertainment for supporting Team Diabetes Canada with this sponsorship.