Dinosaurs & Disasters

Date and Time

• Saturday, Feb 7, 2026  9am - 5pm

Location

Category

Family

Details

Join UNSM and UNL paleontologists, researchers, and educators as they explore dinosaurs, natural disasters, and ways science impacts our daily lives through a variety of hands-on activities and engagement stations. Below are a few of the stations that will be available at this event:

• Dino or Di-not: Play a matching game to learn the difference between dinosaurs and ancient reptiles.
• Cretaceous Cruise: Learn about marine reptiles and the Valparaiso plesiosaur in Morrill Hall, then try your hand at being a paleontologist and take some measurements.
• A Colorful History: Think like a paleoartist and understand why scientists choose traits such as fur or feather color and why artist renditions change over time.
• The Extinction Game: Create your creature, spin the wheel, see if you can survive extinction.
• (AR)chie: Use AR goggles to see how paleontology, art, and technology work together to recreate Archie as he would have appeared when alive and walking the Great Plains.
• Geologic Eras Trivia: Guests will learn about the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras and the unique habitats and creatures during those periods of time. Guests will then be shown 12 pictures of prehistoric creatures and must try to guess which era they belong to.
• A Bone to Pick: Guests will learn how prehistoric animals become fossils through the fossilization process, and then will be tested to see if they can determine bone vs. fossil when given the two specimens from the same animal.
• Sort it Out!: Learn about sorting microfossils from UNSM's paleontology team.
• Gravity of the Matter: Use marbles to learn why black holes pull matter into them.
• The Tail of Two Dinos: Did dinos drag their tail or carry it behind them as the walk? Learn the answer and how scientists determine this.
• Dino Teeth: Teeth fossils are important finds as they inform paleontologists about the diet, habitat, and other behaviors of the prehistoric animal. Guests will get to handle various teeth fossils and see if they can identify whether the tooth belongs to a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore. Guests will also get to see what ancient animal the teeth belong to.
• From Pompeii to Modern Day: Learn about the historic Pompeii disaster using objects from UNSM's archaeology collection and the modern day study of volcanoes and how scientists help prepare for modern volcanic disasters.
• Mystery in the Mantle: Using a light table, guests will learn that some volcanoes are not formed from colliding plates, but from a hotspot in the crust of the Earth. This accounts for locations such as Hawaii and UNSM's Ashfall Fossil Beds.
• Sollution to Pollution: Where do we get our drinking water? Learn what an aquifer is and how runoff can affect our drinking water.
• World in Motion: Assemble a large puzzle which demonstrates our techtonic plates, and learn how these tectonic plates can move and cause phenomena such as Earthquakes.
• Moonquakes!: How are the Moon and Earth similar? Does the moon experience quakes like earth? Guests will help demo how quakes can occur on both Earth and the Moon.
• Community Access Program Collection: Bring a donation for the Lincoln Little Free Pantries for a chance to win prizes.