GOING DIGITAL Learning About Dinosaurs

Learning About Dinosaurs Read. Watch. Meet.

By Liz Crocker, Learning Program Developer

You don’t have to be a student or a teacher to use the Learning Portal, but you do have to be a learner. Luckily, we’re all learners!

If you’re curious about British Columbia (and who isn’t?), a quick dip into Learning Portal themes gives you an idea of the breadth of topics covered on this dynamic website. Start at the top of the homepage, and you’ll see pathways to explore British Columbia through subject, a timeline to explore British Columbia through time, a map to explore British Columbia through place, and playlists where you can create and share your own stories about British Columbia. To take a more direct and deeper dive into the Learning Portal, let’s look at one of our newest pathways, BC’s Mountain Dinosaur. It’s all about the discovery of Buster, a small leptoceratopsid from northern British Columbia. (You can also read a bit about Buster on page 8 of this magazine.)

Once you’ve navigated to the pathway, click on “read” for Reading Rocks: A Snapshot of a Cretaceous Forest and other short articles

by our resident palaeontologist, Dr. Victoria Arbour. In the “watch” and “listen” sections, find a video made minutes after a dinosaur fossil discovery and audio recordings of Dr. Arbour answering some common dinosaur questions. In “look,” examine photographs from Dr. Arbour’s palaeontology field work, including three-dimensional images of dinosaur bones! Learn more about Dr. Arbour and her career in the “meet” section. Finally, if you’re an educator, the “teach” section offers some concrete links between school curricula and British Columbia’s mountain dinosaur, Ferrisaurus sustutensis.

Whatever your interest in British Columbia— dinosaurs, plants, animals, people, past or present— the Learning Portal is a wealth of online riches about this beautiful province we call home.

Follow your curiosity now to rbcm.ca/ferrisaurus.

Victoria Arbour, David Evans, and Jade Simon interpret the geology near where Buster the dinosaur was found at Birdflat Creek.

ORCA SUMMER CAMPS

Make a splash at a camp like no other! Explore the world of orcas with fascinating collections, playful activities and exciting field trips, inspired by our feature exhibition, Orcas: Our Shared Future.

Camps for ages 4 through 14 available this July and August.