So how do you keep the attention of 40 kids that are all stuffed in a room at a public library? The answer is simple, you don't. That is, unless your name happens to be Dale Gnidovec. One our very own (Dale) recently managed to keep the attention of around 40 kids ranging from 6 to 12 by talking about every kids favorite thing, Dinosaurs. Dale gives many talks during the year about multiple subjects to a large range of audiences; he has both talks aimed towards kids and talks that adults will understand. He gives these talks all around Ohio and he is based out of The Ohio State University.
The talk that I attended had 53 attendees (with about 40 kids and their parents). Dale talked about the different types of dinosaurs and passed things around for the kids to look at. He also has a variety of posters to help them understand the difference in size. He showed a modern human vertebra and a much larger elephant vertebra to the colossal size of the Diplodocid vertebra (about 1:5:20 ratio in size difference). This talk lasted about 45 minutes and he kept the attention (of most) of the kids for the entire time. All seemed to enjoy (both kids and parents) and all learned a thing or two about fossils.
MEE
