The return of Dinosaur Takeover!

After roaring success, our Dinosaur Takeover! for schools is returning this November 2016.

Back in March schools from across Bristol and beyond took a trip to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery for a hands-on dinosaur experience. Our Learning team partnered with expert paleontologists from the University of Bristol to bring to life the fantastic collections of fossil and dinosaur remains held at the Queens Road site.

The event in celebration of British Science Week was a huge success. We were pleased to have welcomed more than 250 children from Year 1-4 over a five day period. We are now busy planning ahead for our next Dinosaur Takeover!, which we are pleased to confirm will take place between 7-11 November 2016.

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has a special connection to dinosaurs…

In 1834 Samuel Stutchbury, the second Curator of the Bristol Institute – now Bristol Museum & Art Gallery – was approached by a group of quarrymen who had discovered strange bones at Durdham Down, Clifton. In fact this was only the fourth dinosaur to be discovered in the world and the term ‘dinosaur’ had not yet been invented. It was named Thecondontosaurus antiquus. Eight years later Richard Owen called an extinct group of fossil reptiles ‘dinosaurs’ and it was clear that the Bristol dinosaur belonged to that group. ‘Theco’, as the Bristol dinosaur is now fondly known, lived about 210 million years ago in the Triassic period.

During our Dinosaur Takeover! Year 1 – 4 children will be able to spend a morning or afternoon finding out all about ‘Theco’, his characteristics and habitat – as well as taking part in a range of other activities, all linked to the Key Stage One and Two science curriculum. There will also be a special session for children who are Home Educated.

 

We are teaming up with PhD and Masters Palaeontology students from the Earth Sciences department at Bristol University, so children will have the privilege of being guided by the best!

We are already taking bookings for November, so if you want to reserve your class a workshop, you better be quick as places might just become extinct.

Some lovely feedback was received from our last Dinosaur Takeover! Andrew Easey, a teacher from Cam Everlands Primary School in Gloucestershire who brought a class to the museum, described the Dinosaur takeover workshops as:

“a great introduction to the world of dinosaurs for Year 1 children… and great to handle fossils and think about where they came from and what they were.”

Michael Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol who we worked with said:

“we’ are delighted to partner with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to engage young children in science. It’s brilliant for the students too – a break from their regular studies, but also serious, practical experience in education and learning.’

Schools that book a class onto our Dinosaur Takeover! workshops will also be offered a unique chance to book a FREE in-school follow-up session led by postgraduate students from the University of Bristol.

If you work in a school, please tell your colleagues about this event. You can also sign up to our Teachers’ Newsletter for latest information from the Learning Team.

Read more about our Dinosaur Takeover!

Dinosaur Joke:
Why are there old dinosaur bones in museums?
Because they can’t afford new ones!