Multilingual videos to introduce children to archaeology, paleontology and more

CU Museum of Natural History’s Curator of Archaeology William Taylor’s interest in the sciences was sparked at a young age. Taylor started thinking about archaeology when he was 5 or 6 years old, playing Indiana Jones computer games and dreaming about the adventures he might have. The lightbulb moment occurred in grade school, during a class field trip to regional museum, where he joined an actual archaeological dig and helped find a veritable artifact!

Decades later, Taylor has teamed with Amelia the Archaeologist (a deaf public archaeology outreach educator) and his sister Cecily Whitworth (a deaf advocate, artist and educator), plus CU researchers and CU students to pilot a pair of videos that may inspire kids to be scientists, too.

“It is especially powerful for young folks to look at a scientist and see someone they can grow up to be,” said Taylor.

“I agree,” added Whitworth, "These materials are designed especially for kids who have never met a scientist before. I hope we are planting some seeds that grow into paleontologists and archaeologists in about 20 years!”

This project started small. The original educational offerings included exercises, worksheets and activities. The PACES grant from CU allowed the group to branch out to make videos and to include a paleontology video as well. “We hope to expand this project in the future to bring in other disciplines, other scientists from the museum, around campus and other languages,” said Taylor.

Online visitors can access each video, learn more about the content creators, plus download and engage with additional educational activities for young people—via the museum's Museum from Home webpage.

For more information about CU’s PACES grants and the communities they serve visit the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship.