I occasionally (very occasionally, right now, with my workload the way it is) watch the Symphony of Science series on youtube. Today I took a few minutes & watched "The world of the dinosaurs", which is quite good** in a techno- sort of way.
Why am I mentioning this? Because when I was taking part in Primary Science Week, dinosaurs did get a mention. Most children seem fascinated by dinos (partly, I suspect, because they are big, dangerous, & safely extinct, as Stephen Jay Gould once remarked), and that fascination can lead them into all sorts of science-based questions. Perhaps we should make more use of dinosaurs, in primary education. (Plenty of opportunities there for building dino-science into literacy and numeracy work, after all!)
** although the pedant in me insists on noting that pterosaurs, pliosaurs, & their ilk were most definitely not dinosaurs!
herr doktor bimler says:
dinos […] are big, dangerous, & safely extinct
Don’t tell the cladists!
Alison Campbell says:
Pedant!