It's Behind the Scenes Weekend at the Natural History Museum of Utah.
Yesterday I spent four hours talking about ammonites. (Since my expertise is in living mammals, not extinct cephalopods, I had to do some quick googling at the start!) The best part was talking to kids. I figured I had 30-60 seconds per kid to awaken their curiosity about the natural world, to spark an interest in science, to teach them that science matters. Extinct animals matter. Geologic time matters. Facts matter. Some kids weren't into the ammonites so we talked about dinosaurs instead. I learned that every kid, even a two-year-old for whom English is not their first language, will smile and answer when asked, "What's your favorite dinosaur?"
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