Milford, Mich. resident William Burke, 12, files at a piece of amber to try to polish it Monday at the annual Fossil Camp at the MSU Museum.
Children circled through numerous stations to examine fossils of fish, bugs and several other organisms and learn about their significance on the first day of a fossil camp hosted by the MSU Museum.
The annual Fossil Camp at the MSU Museum began Monday with a class of 12 students instructed by Danita Brandt, an associate professor in the MSU Department of Geological Sciences, who has taught at the camp since it began in 2001.
After one day at camp, 11-year-old Sophie Steiner, a student in the class, said she already learned one of the golden rules of paleontology.
“It’s not just dinosaurs,” Steiner said. “There are way more fossils than just that.”
The camp teaches various paleontological techniques such as stone polishing and fossil identification, to children who are interested in paleontology.
Although dinosaur fossils are discussed in a large segment during the four-day class, Brandt said she wants to send children home with an awareness of other things as well.
“We have a focus on fossil identification and a lot of hands-on with real fossils,” she said. “That’s what I want to bring to kids. We’re using real fossils, we’re not doing the ‘dig through the fake rock for the plastic dinosaur’ stuff.”
Brandt said she also tries to incorporate concepts that are difficult for children to grasp by talking about numbers and relating them to how old the Earth is.
“We try to make a million dots,” she said. “With 12 kids, working for 45 minutes and with great dedication, we can make about 32,000 dots. Then we talk about how many more times we’d have to come to make a million (and) the kids would have to come each year until they’re about 30.”
Matthew Burke, a resident of Milford, Mich., signed up his 12-year-old son, William, when he was 8, and said William loved the camp.
“He’s kind of a maniac about it,” Matthew Burke joked. “In the regular school year, he has his dinosaur books, but he gets away from it a little bit because of (schoolwork). Now that he’s here, all of a sudden he’ll be reinvigorated toward his fossil books.”
The success of the class is due to the way Brandt displays her knowledge and communicates to children, said Gary Morgan, the director of the MSU Museum.
“What is really obvious with Danita is she just emanates the desire to communicate and children respond to that,” Morgan said. “It’s not just about the information, but the way (it) is projected.”
Brandt said her communication with the campers allows for special moments to occur between her and the children every day.
“To the kids, I’m a rock star,” she said. “They think I have the neatest job on Earth, so dealing with the kids who like fossils themselves makes me feel like I have the best job on Earth.”
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