Content Introduction Contact Studied for the event Get ready for the main event Researching my topic Museum Preparation for main event Plan Information about Exhibition day About activity procedures Pictures More Pictures What I learned from this event? How is relevant to Early Childhood Program Does it meet the criteria of Developmentally Appropriate Practices(DAP) ? Conclusion

Introduction Service learning project is giving me the opportunity to learn how to get involved in a meaningful community service project that enriches children’s learning and development. Also learned how to connect with the kids and their families. My service learning project is based on family day event on November 17, Exhibition topic is “Step in stone, walking through time” and was held in University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder. I worked as a volunteer in that event day.

Contact Per my ECE course requirement on Service Learning Project, I contacted Ms. Cathy Regan, the Education Coordinator of University of Colorado Museum of Natural History in Boulder. I met with her and discussed about the volunteer ship in Museum Of Natural History. Following her advice I completed necessary paperwork to start as a volunteer. Volunteer Form

Studied for the event Exhibition topic is “Step in stone, walking through time” that had several parts (topics), such as Dinosaur Diversity and Fossil track, Locomotion without legs, and others. I read about those topics and selected “Dinosaur Diversity and Fossil track” for my project. After I selected my topic, I read several books and reaserched a few articles related to my project.

Get ready for the main event To prepare for my event, I attended a prior family day event named “The Fascinating World of Fruit”. In that event I worked as event helper and sat near a table with some materials and explained to the visitors about the materials. I described to the children how birds, moths, butterflies, beetles and bees help in pollination to grow fruits. I also did a picture game with the kids (age 4 to 7). This provided me a valuable experience helped to prepare for my main event held on November 15, Movie

Researching my topic My topic is Dinosaur Diversity and Fossil track Fossil tells us about the physical evidence of dinosaurs who lived on earth long time ago. Fossil track contains footprints of different dinosaurs extinct today. They lived on the earth 220 million years ago and most of them went extinct about 66 million years ago after a huge asteroid hit our earth. Although dinosaurs were killed but their impressions of feet are still available on the earth today.

Museum Preparation for main event I saw how slowly exhibits were organized and materials were displayed to get ready for the event day.

Plan I prepared a plan showing how I would present my activities to the kids on the exhibition day. Wrote a theme on “Exploring Dinosaurs Diversity through their foot prints”. My goal of my activity was, using a hoof, paw, or foot prints of dinosaur or other animals, children will make a track of animal footprints. I did two activities: a) First activity is “Make a Mark here” on kinetic sand and b) Second activity is “Make an impression of footprints using Model Magic”.

Information about Exhibition Day Duration of the entire Exhibition was Nov 6 _ Dec 31, Family Day event was held on November 15th 10a.m. to 4p.m. My first activity Make a mark on kinetic sand on the exhibit floor and my second activity “Making an impression of footprint using Model Magic was on the basement floor. I spent more time with the first activity where I demonstrated the children how to work with kinetic sand in an exhibition cart. Then the kids made their own footprint tracks on the kinetic sand. When I asked if they see any difference in footprints of different animals. Some of the kids easily found the difference between footprints of two different animals. Children from different ages came to the exhibition. I asked some questions to the kids, such as, Did you see the model of dinosaurs’ footprint? Do you have any idea about footprint or fossil track? Then I attended my second activity named Make an impression of footprint using model magic. I demonstrated to the kids how to make footprints on a model magic.

About Activity Procedures First Activity: Make a track using kinetic sand. Procedures: Let the kids choose a paw, hoof or foot and then press it into the kinetic sand. Then kids can see their tracks they make. Kinetic sand is re- usable; all marks on surface can be erased by pressing a wood on top of the sand Movie on making a track Second Activity: Make an impression of footprint using model magic. Procedures: First you can take a small amount of Model Magic and then make a ball. After that you can press it on the center to make a flat circle. Then you take foot print of dinosaur mold and press it on the flat model magic. After that take out the mold and see the impression of footprint on the model magic. Model magic does not stick to the hands and dries out easily. Movie on making impression of footprint using model magic.

Pictures Pictures of the exhibition day

More Pictures More pictures of exhibition:

What I learn from this event How get involved in community service project /public event. How to work in museum environment. How to prepare myself for an exhibition. Studied books and articles on dinosaurs and fossil tracks and learned a lot about them. How to communicate with the different age group of children and adults. Also learned a lot about the history of geographical condition about Boulder area and surrounding areas.

How is relevant for Early Childhood Program I think that this events are relevant to early childhood education program because kids learned from the present environment. It was an event with a few hands-on activities where from kids learned a few things. Learned about Dinosaur, footprints of dinosaur and other animals. They learned how to make foot prints on kinetic sand and model magic. Learned how to manipulate the hoof, paw and footprints of animals and made the tracks in their own way.

Does it meet the criteria of Developmentally Appropriate Practices(DAP) This museum event met the DAP criteria: It was a play based activity as well as the kids learned through hands-on activity. Play is a medium for young kids to learn from environment. Kids liked playing with both kinetic sand and model magic to create animal footprints and tracks. These two events gave the kids opportunities to learn about footprints of dinosaur and of their familiar animals, how to create footprints and tracks using paws, hoofs and footprint molds. The best thing is kids enjoyed the two events while they learned about dinosaur/animal footprints.

Conclusion Museum is a place where different age groups of people come and learn about dinosaur footprints. Most important thing, kids came to explore their idea about dinosaur, dinosaur track or track way. Besides, they made their own track of footprints using the footprint of animals they are familiar with. I myself learned a lot about fossil track, track-way, how to study fossil track, and other things.