Digital Field Trips

Freshly back From the Field, Join Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal BC Museum, for a look at what she and her team discovered this past summer in northern BC

Can you put together an insect? We will be using this during the program.

Please print off one copy for each student before your digital field trip to use during the program.

Overview of the the pre and post visit resources for the Art with Chrystal Phan Digital Field Trip

In 2017, curator of palaeontology Dr. Victoria Arbour and her team discovered a fossil of the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a tree which lived alongside dinosaurs 67 million years ago. How did this fossil become part of the Royal BC Museum collections?

Narrate with the music using the script below. Allow enough time for the students to play and experiment with their movements in between lines of narration.

• You are a Hadrosaur playing in the forest
• Lean forward and walk on all fours as you trot between the trees
• The bright sunlight shines through the Dawn Redwood trees, and you start to get tired in the heat. It’s so hot!
• Use the claws on your back feet to dig in the dark, wet earth to find some water
• Take a big drink have a rest as you cool off

Narrate with the music using the script below. Allow enough time for the students to play and experiment with their movements in between lines of narration.  

• You are Tyrannosaurus Rex walking through the forest
• You are crashing down trees as you move
• Let out a deep roar as you stomp
• Use your sharp teeth to pick up a smaller dinosaur in your teeth and shake it in your mouth
• It does not taste good, drop it on the ground
• Keep stomping around looking for something else to eat
• Smile with your big, pointy teeth
• The sun goes down and you curl up on the forest floor to fall asleep

Narrate with the music using the script below. Allow enough time for the students to play and experiment with their movements in between lines of narration.    

• You are a tall sauropod, looking for lunch
• Walk slowly as you stretch out your long neck, looking over the trees for tasty leaves
• Choose a tree and chew the sweet, green leaves.
• Look around you on the ground at the little dinosaurs running around far below at your feet. Be careful as you walk not to step on any of them!
• It takes a lot of energy to move your heavy body, so you move slowly, slowly.

Practice your colour values

Colour in the Ferrisaurus sustutensis

Print, cut, and assemble this dino dice and move around like a dinosaur!

How to hold your pencil for shading.

Join Steven Davies as he discusses how learning about First Nations technology and innovation enriches our knowledge of the land we live on.

Colour in Woolly!

A walk through the natural history gallery at the Royal BC Museum reveals the stunning diversity and complexity of life in British Columbia.  

In the summer of 2019, the Royal British Columbia Museum held the first iteration of the Indigenous Summer Arts Studio. This program was a revitalization of a previous carving studio that operated in Thunderbird park from 1952 to 2008. Each week showcased different featured artists and media, such as beadwork, carving, painting and cedar weaving. The Indigenous Summer Arts Studio provided a space for Indigenous artists to learn from one another and share their work, talents and cultures with the public. Providing these opportunities for cultural exchanges was the core of this program. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to host this program in subsequent summers. However, we have continued to find opportunities to share these artists’ talents. In the summer of 2021, we began filming interviews and demonstrations with previous artist participants. Videos covered topics such as Métis beadwork, native plants, drum-making and more. While we know nothing can replace face-to-face interactions and conversations with artists, these videos will help you learn from Indigenous artists in new ways. We hope that as you view these videos and learn from a number of past participants of the Indigenous Summer Arts Studio, you will gain a greater understanding of Indigenous culture as you witness it thriving today.

Curator of Archaeology Grant Keddie explains microblade technology. Find article here.

First Peoples Histories and Timeline in BC

Pictures and drawings of First Peoples fishing technologies

Pre and Post program activity

Look over this vocabulary list as an introduction or summary of the program.

Bring this worksheet with you to your program.  Create a list of behaviors and body parts that a plant or animal has to help them survive.

This printable activity sheet is a great introduction or review of some themes covered in the Orca Digital Field Trip. Find the printable activity sheet here.

Do orcas have the rights of personhood? Try this debate activity in your classroom!

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a contemporary artist whose wide-ranging artistic practice explores themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition. Influenced by both Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, he has created an artistic practice that crosses diverse cultures, generations, and disciplines in search of accessibility and engagement as a counterpoint to stratification and isolation.   His mural titled Orcinus Orca SKAAnaa is included in the Royal BC Museum feature exhibition Orcas: Our Shared Future, which presents the stories and science that surround the magnificent orca, spirit of BC’s wild coast and apex predator of all oceans.   Orcas: Our Shared Future weaves the currents of ecological interests, popular culture and Indigenous beliefs to gain a new appreciation of these sophisticated animals, long feared in Western cultures as “killer whales.”

Find Pathways and other content here that have a First Peoples, Indigenous Peoples theme.

Find Pathways and other content here that have an Animal Studies (Zoology) theme.

Find Pathways and other content here that have a Natural Resource Use and Industry theme.

Educator Hannah Morales created this lesson about different Indigenous uses of plants native to the south coast of British Columbia. Seed Package Template.   You can find lesson plan here.

Educator Hannah Morales created this lesson that incorporates First Peoples principles of learning, science curriculum and birds. You can find lesson plan here.

Use video interviews from the Indo Canadian Sawmill Pioneer Family Oral History Collection Project as educational tools. You can find lesson plan here.

Find Pathways and other content here that have a Diverse Communities/Multiculturalism theme.

These learning plans were created by Open School BC to support the new primary Social Studies and English Language Arts curricula. They include First Nations content by using curatorial objects, historical photographs and picture books. You can find the Module here.

Curator of Archaeology Grant Keddie writes about the megafauna (large animals) that lived during the last Ice Age.