The town of Maple Creek, SK, which we went through, had major flooding, as did the city of Medicine Hat, AB, which is still under a state of emergency.

Anyways, shortly after our return, the boys and I made another long-distance trip (350kms / just over 200 miles) to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, where we met up with another homeschooling family. Buffalo jumps were widely used by aboriginal peoples on the prairies / great plains / grasslands, and involved killing buffalo—which they depended on for food, shelter, clothing, and more—by driving them over cliffs.

Head-Smashed-In is a superb interpretive centre—another of Alberta’s sites designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO—and built right into the side of the cliff once used as a buffalo jump. The centre (and cliff) is 6 stories high. Curious how this area got its name? Here’s the sign that greets you in the parking lot:

The left-hand text of which reads: “In the 1800s, according to legend, a young brave wanted to witness the plunge of buffalo as his people drove them to their deaths over the cliffs. Standing under the shelter of a ledge, he watched the great beasts fall past him. The hunt was unusually good that day. As the bodies mounted, he became trapped between the animals and cliff. When his people came to do butchering, they found him with his skull crushed by the weight of buffalo carcasses. Thus, they named the place “Head-Smashed-In.”

Archaeological evidence indicates that this site was used by Aboriginal people for at least 5700 years [in other words, a site older than the pyramids in Egypt], making it among the oldest, largest, and best preserved of the many buffalo jump sites on the western plains.

In 1981, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO].”

Upon entering the interpretive centre, you see this:

and are given instructions as to the suggested order in which to tour the site. They suggest you watch a film about how the buffalo jump was used—as I had read elsewhere that this film is disturbingly realistic, the boys opted to skip it—and then proceed to the top of the centre and work back down. This site and field trip in general was a challenge for my young vegetarians, but it helped them understanding other cultures, other choices, and led some great discussion about how animals were used then (hardly anything was wasted, and thanks was given to the buffalo for giving their lives so the people could live) vs. today (another factory-farmed Big Mac, please!), as well as the difference between choice and necessity.

The boys, with their palaeontological leanings, quite enjoyed the display with the buffalo skeleton, and the lift-the-flap quiz asking you to identify the bone fragments:

They also liked the infant and doll carriers, and learning what was used for diapers back then (moss stuffed into the baby carrier):

We then headed, as suggested, to the top of the centre, and outside along the cliff top where the buffalo were driven over (you can still see the cairns—rock piles—used as drive lanes). The view is incredible:

That’s the Oldman River valley in the distance, one of the few areas with trees in these grasslands, and where the Blackfoot would make their winter camps. In the very far distance, along the horizon, you can just make out some of the many wind turbines in this part of Alberta. Many folks know Alberta is blessed with oil and natural gas deposits, but we also have many wind farms in this SW corner of the province.

The cliffs. Note the school group on the pathway below to give you a sense of scale:

In contrast to the above photo, which looks NE, this is the view to the SW—the Rocky Mountains. Yeah, we’re kind of spoiled for stunning landscapes in this province.

We then headed back inside, where we bumped into a school group listening to a Blackfoot guide giving part of a tour. We tagged along, and learned some interesting tidbits, like that teepee poles were not transported from camp to camp; they were left for the next group. We also learned that First Nations peoples travelled far and wide, and traded with one another, as tools made from stone found in the Dakotas and Minnesota has been found on site here:

Before video games and television; these marked buffalo bones were used for games of chance and gambling.

The boys checking out some hands-on displays:

Then we came to their favourite display, which was mine too when I toured this site with some visiting relatives more than a decade ago:

It explains how various parts of the buffalo were used, including buffalo horns carved into drinking cups, or used to carry hot coals; small bone splinters used for awls for sewing; decorated buffalo skulls used in sundance ceremonies; sinew used for sewing and binding; bladder bags (number 13 in the pic) used to store fat in a tightly sealed containers, allowing this important food source to be preserved for long times (Aboriginal tupperware!); and buffalo chips (dried dung) burned as a fuel source—a vital element to surviving the cold winters on these northern grasslands where trees are few.

We also skipped the very end of the interpretive centre, where the destruction of the buffalo at the hands of the white man was accomplished in a few short years. Shocking, really, when the Blackfoot and other First Nations peoples killed them in huge numbers, but never to the point of (near) extinction.

After a quick lunch break, we met up with the other homeschooling family for a walk outside:

Here’s the cliffs as they appear from below:

You could see many cliff swallow nests, as well as poop stains:

Daegan found the archaeological information quite interesting. As close as it got to palaeontology for this site, I suppose. Note the teepees in the background:

Interpretive sign about the archaeological site, and how—among other things—dating can be done by examining the type and shape of arrowheads found:

Of course, other things caught the kids’ interests, like this caterpillar:

And here’s the boys looking for more bugs. Makes me wonder if Blackfoot brothers did the same thing in this very spot, hundreds of years ago.

The entrance to the park is quite dramatic. When driving, all of a sudden the prairie drops away, and it is badlands as far as the eye can see:

There is an area to pull off into, and several interpretative signs. Here’s an excited Gareth:

and Daegan at the sign with information about DPP being designated as UNESCO World Heritage site, putting it in the same category as Stonehenge or the Pyramids:

The close-up of the sign reads: Dinosaur Provincial Park, which was nominated by Canada on behalf of Alberta, was placed on the World Heritage List at the 1979 meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee as a site of outstanding universal value forming part of the natural heritage of mankind. Dinosaur Park contains the largest and most comprehensive collection of Upper Cretaceous dinosaur fossils in the world and specimens are on display in major museums everywhere. It also contains excellent examples of badlands and an important riparian ecosystem supporting a wide variety of flora and fauna. [If you visit London’s Natural History Museum, New York’s American Museum of Natural History, and countless other museums around the world, you will find many fossils on display are from DPP].

The badlands were carved by the Red Deer River:

and they have signs explaining this process. Here’s Gareth taking a look at the “Birth of the Badlands” display:

It’s hard to give a sense of scale of these lands in pictures, but I thought this photo did a reasonable job. I have labelled some items you can see:

There are just so many interesting ways wind and water have eroded the lands. Here’s the view right beside the interpretive centre:

One of the biggest surprises, to me, was how much wildlife we saw, especially unusual birds like this lark sparrow:

After a long visit at the interpretive centre, we headed on a gravel driving loop that took us to two fossil houses, and 3 trail heads. What is a fossil house? It’s a windowed shelter built over fossils that were found on site and remain in the ground. There are signs and displays, a plasticized book to flip through for more info, and an audio clip by Dr. Phil Currie (Canada’s best-known living palaeontologist) that is played by pushing a button:

There were lots of places to walk around the badlands:

You did have to be careful where you stepped, though—there were cacti everywhere!

Some of the cacti were already in bloom, lending a shocking burst of colour to an otherwise muted landscape:

At the second fossil house, we decided to embark on a hike. This hike has several interpretive signs along the way, and ends at a 1913 fossil quarry. We only made it about halfway, though—in the blazing heat, all of us sweated our bug spray off and were being eaten alive! The badlands trap the heat, and it can be much hotter here than in towns nearby. A temperature of 47C (117F) has been recorded here in the shade!

Jim read the safety warnings about not sticking your hands under rocks or ledges, or into cracks and crevices one more time for the boys. I think the boys were disappointed, but I was quite happy we didn’t see any rattlesnakes, scorpions, or black widow spiders:

The signs were interesting, and covered the earliest fossil finders in this area (The Blackfoot First Nations peoples) to Joseph Tyrrell (after whom the Royal Tyrrell Museum in nearby Drumheller is named) to the “Great Canadian Fossil Rush” of the early 1900s. I’m calling this Daegan’s history curriculum.

We also saw several interesting rock formations, and our minds were running wild with fossils. I dubbed these “stegosaurus rocks”, as they look very much like the plates on a stegosaur’s back to my eye:

Just before heading for home, Jim saw some bones. Not fossils—they’re clearly recent—but it had all of us wondering what creature met its demise in these badlands:

Tomorrow: the interpretive centre at DPP. A lot more than just dinosaurs!      

We arrived right at the 10:30 kick-off time, and went into a large outdoor tent that had been set up for the speeches. We joined a group of about 70 schoolkids from Cappy Smart school. Cappy Smart served as Calgary’s Fire Chief from 1898-1933 (Calgary was founded only in 1885), and was quite a colourful character. You can read more about him here. I have to say whoever organized things did very well, providing kids with crayons and paper-covered tables to draw on while waiting and during the speeches:

There were some displays set up at “stations” for the school kids, to learn about fire safety:

Various dignitaries gave brief speeches, and then we were treated to the leader of the Cappy Smart band playing his flugelhorn:

We then headed over into the museum itself. There was a display just inside the door that took us a minute to figure out how to work:

The display showed three triangles around the outside, ‘fuel’ (with pictures of wood, gasoline, etc.), ‘heat’ (candle, matches) and oxygen (‘wind’). When you cozied them up against the ‘Fire’ triangle in the middle, it lit up—you’ve got fire!

The main attraction of the museum is a fully restored old-time aerial firetruck,  nicknamed “Maggie”. We spent quite a bit of time considering how Maggie different from today’s fire trucks, such as having a wooden extension ladder:

We also noticed how different the wheels were, with see-thru spokes and thinner rubber tire. At this point an oldtimer overheard us talking and told us that the tires were solid rubber, and the springs / suspension tight too. As he put it, “The only padding you had was on your seat, and you felt EVERY rock en route to the fire.” Gareth asked him a few more questions about the truck and firefighting; it added a wonderful bit of colour to our visit.

The other truck inside the museum is an old Ronald Steamer, a horse-drawn wagon with a big cauldron of water that, using steam, was able to apply 120 pounds per square inch of pressure, quite a reasonable amount for the era. The museum is taking donations, and proceeds from the gift shop will go towards the estimated $180,000 it will cost to have the Steamer fully restored.

There were lots of artefacts to look at, many of which gave a good sense of the era. I was surprised by how engaging the boys found this part of the museum, which was not hands-on, and more adult-oriented (lots of writing).

A leather bucket used in a ‘bucket brigade’, an electric lantern (flashlight / torch), and a public fire alarm, like the ones you see in buildings today. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the 911 system was in place, and before then, there were public pull-in-case-of-fire alarms around the city. Who knew?

One of the boys favourite parts was at the end, where they got to put out a virtual fire. Daegan first had to learn how to use the fire extinguisher:

And then aimed it (it shone a green light at the screen) to put out the fire. It was very hard to get the fire under control before your fire extinguisher ran out of ‘juice’, just like real life!

There was a cameraman there from Shaw TV (our local Cable TV / Community TV), who asked if Daegan could do it again so he could get shots—that is, if it was ok to put Daegs on TV. Daegan was happy to oblige:

And Gareth, the social charmer, got a turn too. They have fire hats and kid-sized fire suits for the kids to put on first for this activity, but given the 70 school kids and 8 suits, they didn’t put them out today. Good decision, even if Gareth was disappointed.

Unfortunately with the pouring rain we didn’t get to check out the half-dozen or so other trucks outside. But we’ll go back again sometime. The museum is still quite small and young—compare Winnipeg’s Fire Fighter Museum—but we had a great time, and enjoyed getting to talk with folks one-on-one. Gareth’s favourite part was putting out the fire, but Daegan quite surprised me by saying his favourite part was seeing the old trucks and old objects and seeing how things were different a long time ago. Many thanks to Tracy, a local HS Mom, for telling us about this grand re-opening.

Here’s Gareth investigating the apple slice left in regular table salt. It was still somewhat flexible and spongy—not fully dried out—and there was very little browning.

I am glad I had Daegan dump the container with the baking soda apple, as Gareth is allergic to mould. I snapped a very quick pic and got it out of the house asap:

We then examined the apple slice left in Epsom salt, and found it similar to the one left in regular table salt: still somewhat flexible, with little browning. It seemed slightly more dried out than the table salt apple:

Finally, we checked our control apple that was simply exposed to the air. It was BY FAR the most dried out of the apple slices, leading the boys to conclude that to mummify things here, you need only expose them to the dry Calgary air!

While I agreed with their conclusion if the only goal of mummification is to dry something out, I pointed out that there was another difference between the control apple and the ones left in salts: the control was much more browned (hence decayed) than the ones left in salts. So if the goal of mummification was to preserve without decay, perhaps a longer time in a salt mix would be best. Still, I did find it pretty funny that our air is more drying than salt!

So today I gathered up some materials we had around the house and did a very spur of the moment “unit study” on Ancient Egypt. We had found a couple promising books at the library yesterday; the Ms. Frizzle title proved to be a very useful introduction for my science- and Magic-School-Bus-loving boys:

Daegan recalled that one of his magazines had a whole issue about Ancient Egypt. (I highly recommend this magazine for kids anywhere. It is ad-free, and covers a wide variety of science topics. The publisher is Canadian, but the content is not. I thank my aunt for getting Daegan a subscription years ago, as it has built upon his love of bugs and dinos to introduce a wide variety of subjects.)

We built a pyramid of sugar cubes, talking about kings and pharoahs, square numbers, and burial rituals along the way:

We wrote our names in hieroglyphics:

We began an experiment to mummify an apple, the details of which can be found here. We did a simplified version:

We cracked some funny (or should I say punny) Egyptian-themed codes:

We read about the Great Pyramid (the boys are very into large numbers and measurement right now):

We moved “heavy blocks” (really, heavy books stacked on top of one another) as they would have when building the pyramid, and discussed how the ancient Egyptians might have made their work easier:

We got out some pencil crayon “logs” and used them to create rollers under the blocks, making the work much easier:

Tomorrow we will continue the Egypt theme by using squares to demonstrate the Pythagorean theorem (which the ancient Egyptians used to reallocate farmland after the Nile flooded each year). And Gareth wants to make date squares, his favourite dessert / snack. After all, as he pointed out to me while we were reading, dates did grow in Ancient Egypt.

If you have other favourite Ancient Egypt activities or resources, please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Oh, and I’d love to hear comments as to what you knew about Canada already, and what was surprising or new to you in this clip. Did you know about the oil? World war II? While there was much press of our refusal to join the Iraq war, did you know about our involvement in Afghanistan, something that has (so far) cost 140 Canadian lives? (Remember, we have about 1/10th the US population, so multiply that number by 10 to get a sense of perspective compared with American forces lost). I loved the quote by Kennedy too! Enjoy!

Seems that Gareth has the same gene, but expresses it in a different medium. I nearly stepped on this Duplo creation in the basement:

One of the things I have learned from the boys’ obsession with dinos is that ANY topic can be learned through this interest. Science and math (obviously), geography (where did certain dinos live? where have certain fossils been found?), art, writing (dino stories! dino plays! dino reports!), computer skills (Daegan spends hours googling for dino games), reading (in addition to non-fiction, Dinosaur Cove has proven to be a favourite fiction series), phys ed (nature hikes for fossils), fine motor skills (digging out bones), etc. The one exception was history—other than geological history of the earth, I didn’t see how to get to history through dinosaurs. But then this conversation took place:

Daegan: Mom, what’s a U-Boat?

Me: I think it’s a boat the Germans used in the world wars. Why?

Daegan: Oh, ‘cause one of the best fossil finds from Alberta, in 1915 (or 1916?) got sunk by a German U-Boat on its way back to the British Museum of Natural History. It’s never been found.

Me: That would have been during World War I.

Daegan: Oh….What was World War I? Who fought in it? Why did they fight?….

We’re planning on a trip to the local Military Museum soon. And we’ve since touched on the topic of the Great Depression as well, as we learned in a documentary that Roy Chapman Andrews had a hard time raising funds to continue his digs in Mongolia after the Great Depression hit.