Though the stress of class registration can make you crazy, don’t start questioning your sanity yet when you see “Age of Dinosaurs” as a geology elective.
This semester, it meets only Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The class proves a popular choice for elementary education majors.
Not on every college campus do you see a class dedicated to these creatures that capture our fascination long after they existed on Earth. However, I assure you it’s a real course at ULM offered on-campus or online.
Though real, “Age of Dinosaurs” stands out from your average science course. You can’t deny it has character and humor.
Gary Stringer, professor of geology, strolls into class donning a tie with a dinosaur skeleton. If that was not enough to kick the class off, he then said, “I’m going to show you the toy of the year.”
Within seconds, a robotic Tyrannosaurus rex races across the classroom floor in front of groups’ tables. Stringer mentions his particular toy’s unfortunate defects but still shows its features with enthusiasm. (This Zoomer Dino toy is available online in variety of colors for around $70 or more. You’re welcome from my inner child to yours.)
Now down to business, the class learns about dinosaurs in surprisingly extensive detail from PowerPoint slides with vivid graphics including “reconstructions” of how a specific dinosaur might have looked in its existence.
Even though the material might be fun, the class still focuses on the facts. Stringer’s gestures convey a genuine passion for the knowledge.
The theme of the class emerges early, as modern examples help students relate to these dinosaurs in our Earth’s distant past.
The class looks at several artifacts such as cast of a claw. Students can hold this piece of Earth’s history in their hands.
Stringer connects the present to the past as he compares today’s birds to the theropod dinosaurs.
Of course, the class would not have been complete without its multiple references to “Jurassic Park.”
One slide uses the depiction of the Velociraptor in one of the early “Jurassic Park” films to show how paleontologists have already changed their views in the past decade of what it looked like.
“Things change all the time in science,” Stringer said.
Those who take this class can surely attest to that.
According to ULM’s schedule of classes for Fall 2015, “Age of Dinosaurs” will be taught online next semester by Stringer.
