By Maya Vanderhorst, Grade 7

This summer I went to a summer camp at the College of Saint Rose. The class that I took was paleontology. It was so much fun because we did so many projects.

On my first day of camp we all introduced ourselves. Then our teacher told us what we would be doing throughout the week. She asked us what we knew about fossils, rocks, dinosaurs, and the time periods. The project we did on the first day was rocks. We used clay to make different layers of rock. In some of the layers she had us put fake fossils in the clay. Once we were finished making the layers she taught us about faulting, folding, and uplifts. When a rock fault slides up and down, and when it folds,  causes the continents to become squished together. An uplift is when the ground moves upward. In my group’s clay model we folded our rock then cut it in half to show the layers.

On Tuesday we went to the New York State Museum. We went there to see its fossil and dinosaur exhibit. Our teacher made us a scavenger hunt where we had to answer questions. That was really fun because I got to learn new things about fossils and dinosaurs.

The next day we made our fossils. We used plaster of Paris, petroleum jelly, tin foil and fossils to make our fossil. First we made the tin foil into bowls, then we rubbed petroleum jelly around the foil. Next me made the plaster of Paris and put it in the foil. After that we dropped the fossil in, and after it dried we rubbed jelly on that, then put more plaster over the top. After we made our fossils, my group brainstormed ideas for our presentation. We did our presentation on the dinosaurs and the time periods they came from.

On Thursday we went to Thatcher state Park in Albany. There we went to a dried out stream bed where fossils were located in the rocks. We had to find ten fossils and draw them. Then we had to find the size of the fossil, the color, the shape, the color and texture of the rock we found it in and the type of fossil.

Friday was our last day of camp. We made a life size time line of the eons, eras, and the periods. Then we went over how everything happened and when it happened. We talked about when the dinosaurs came to life and the time periods.

I loved this camp because it was so much fun. I learned so many new things about paleontology. I loved going to Thatcher State Park and being able to view all the unique fossils.