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She Toys with Dinosaurs and Fossils
By Jim Clarke
AP Business Writer
SALT LAKE CITY – It was the looks on the faces of those disappointed Boy Scouts that inspired Jackie Drexel to open Dig It: The Fossil Workshop.
Drexel, the mother of an 11-year old Scout, had planned to take her son and some friends fossil hunting in a Wyoming quarry but says she failed to get the proper OK from a scoutmaster. So she decided to bring the quarry to them.
Thus was born her store in an upscale shopping center. Dig It sells dinosaur toys, puzzles and other prehistoric geegaws. But the loudest squeals of delight are saved for a series of low troughs full of red desert sand. One afternoon in late July, the store was full of 7-year-olds eagerly uncovering fossils – real fossils.
What Drexel has surmised the toy industry already knows: Dinosaurs are in that rare pantheon of toys such as dolls and fire trucks that kids will always come back to. Drexel said the enthusiasm allowed her to turn a profit from her initial opening, though she declined to release numbers.
“Kids love to dig in the dirt and to be able to come up with something and use their imaginations,” said Maria Weiskott, editor-in-chief of Playthings, a monthly trade magazine that covers the toy industry. “Kids love to collect things, and to have a collection of fossils is really cool.”
Perhaps more significantly, it’s a way to slip some solid science into their brains while they think they’re playing, she said.
“You really can’t go wrong with this, because it is learning, but you’re not trying to teach them from a book,” Weiskott said.
Call it geologic luck of the draw, but Utah and nearby Wyoming are loaded with fossils. Drexel and her family dig them out of quarries in Wyoming that are part of the Green River formation, the remnants of a series of large inland lakes that existed about 50 million years ago.
She says she already has enough fossils of fish, leaves and other critters trapped in rock to open several more stores and keep them stocked for years.
And you can’t swing triceratops by its tail without hitting other kid-friendly dinosaur attractions in the state. There are dinosaur parks in Ogden and Lehi; Dinosaur National Monument is in Vernal, on the state’s eastern border with Wyoming; the University of Utah’s natural history museum features a fearsome collection of dinosaur skeletons; and some of the best-preserved dinosaur footprints ever discovered were found in 1999 near St. George.
Toy makers such as Educational Insights also have figured out that kids love to dig for dinosaur bones. The Rancho Dominguez, Calif., company sells several kits that contain replica skeletons encased in molded stone-like substance. Kids chip away with a chisel and mallet to reveal the bones.
“We make our products such that kids are involved in it in some way from beginning to the end,” said George Atamian, Educational Insight’s in-house science expert. “The idea is to invite a kid in a non-threatening, fun manner.”
At Dig It, it seems to be working, at least to judge by the frantic digging going on.
Drexel’s store has been open for about three months. Already, she says, it has hosted 50 parties, mostly children’s birthdays.
“I do think the wave of the future is this kind of interactive learning,” she said.
The educational theory part of the idea is all well and good, but perhaps a better way to understand the attraction is to ask an expert such as 7-year-old Fred Gurney.
Taking a moment away from examining a fossilized fish imprinted on a piece of limestone, he had this to say: “Dinosaurs are the best thing on the Earth. They could kill people.” |
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Digging in the Dirt
Kids excited about paleontology and fossils can get a taste of what it would be like to be out in the field. After excavating a real fossil at Dig It! The Fossil Workshop, which opened in May at the Everett Mall, they can work with it at the fossil preparation station and take it home. The workshop, which originally opened in Utah, grew out of founder Jackie Drecksel’s lifelong interest in paleontology and geology. Drecksel, who has taught the two subjects to kids ages 6-14, hopes that visiting a simulated fossil dig will spark a lifelong interest in visiting kids, as well. “Fossils have been around for millions of years and people are fascinated by the past,” she says. “No matter what generation, kids are interested in fossils, rocks, and minerals.” ($8.99 per specimen. 1402 S.E. Everett Mall Way, Everett. 425-423-8506, www.digitfossils.com)
For more locations to experience dinosaur fossils, read the online article at www.parent map.com/dinosaurs. |
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Going Places: Kids Dig New Fossil Workshop
August 2007
By Taryn Zier
The focused group of 7-year-old boys laboring over their fossils at a work station proves that Dig It! The Fossil Workshop has what it takes to engage kids’ attention. These boys appeared determined to become amateur paleontologists…or maybe they just liked using the dremels (vibrating, drill-like tools).
The interactive learning center opened in the Everett Mall this summer, offering children an opportunity to learn about and dig for authentic fossils from Brazil, China, Europe, Madagascar, Morocco and the United States. For a fee, kids get to keep their discoveries, which are 5- to 600- million years old.
Kids dig in three quarries – Excavation Station, with land fossils; Shark Bite Bay, with sea fossils; and Prospector’s Pit, with rocks and minerals. The fossils are restocked often and are easy to find. There is a station to prepare your specimens with bona fide paleontologist’s tools and a place to pan for fool’s gold. Most children spend an hour to an hour and a half in the quarries and prep stations.
Dig It! staff members are standing by to help and to educate. The activities are open to all ages, but most of the “fossil talk” was lost on my 3-year-old son. And the majority of the fossils are in fragments, which made them difficult for him to discern. He preferred digging in the sand and cracking open our geode with a hammer. I noticed this was also a favorite activity for children at a birthday party.
A gift shop threads through the space, offering pretty much everything dinosaur related. It’s like getting off a ride at Disneyland – the toys do tempt, but because of the dinosaur paraphernalia already in our home, we skipped the shop. The geode and shark-tooth necklace, which we made with beads and twine provided by Dig It!, sufficed.
Dino Towne Play Land, outside the Dig It! entrance in the mall, offers a play area to round out the experience. Kids can venture through a cave displaying intact fossils under glass or climb on soft, dinosaur-themed toys. This space is free and open to the public.
Although there are two smaller Dig It! locations in Utah, the Everett facility is the flagship learning center and model for future franchises. Dig It! was launched in 2002 by Jackie Drecksel, a mom with fond memories of digging fossils with her father.
Dig It! offers birthday party packages and summer camps for kids ages 4 to 12. An educational program called Learn It! Play It! Dig It! is available for schools, groups and scout troops aiming to earn their archeology or geology merit badges.
Taryn Zier is a Seattle-area freelance writer and mother of two.
IF YOU GO
Location: The Everett Mall, 1402 S.E. Everett Mall Way.
Hours: Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Price: Free admission to Dino Towne Playland; $8.99 for one specimen from the quarries; up to $34.99 for six.
Contact: 425-423-8506; www.digitfossils.com. |
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