CALIFORNIA

Heritage Education Programs
The Heritage Education Programs runs field trips and classroom programs for grades four and up. At the Archaeology Adventure field trip program, students excavate in simulated archaeological sites at Apple Valley, Redlands, and Yucaipa. Visit the programs' Web site at: www.HeritageEdu.com or call (866) 277-8340. (This program is featured in dig's November 2003 issue.)

Albinger Museum
The Albinger Museum in Ventura has artifacts that have been found on the site of this archaeological museum. They reveal 3,500 years and five different cultures. The museum is open daily. For more information call: 805-648-5823, or visit: www.ventura.com/points_of_interest/archeosite/.

California Archaeology Month is in May and events take place throughout the state. For details, check the Society for California Archaeology Web site, www.scahome.org.

The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art
The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana hosts a number of archaeological programs for children grades 3-6. For more information call: 714-480-1522, or visit its Web site at: http://www.bowers.org/.

The Lawrence Hall of Science
Lawrence Hall of Science had dinosaur exhibit from May 28, 2011- Jan 1, 2012. Engineers designed life-like versions of dinosaurs that children can interact with. Within the exhibit there was also a hand-on dig site for kids with hidden fossils, and a dinosaur nest. To see information about current and upcoming exhibits, visit the website: http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/visit/exhibits/

The Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles offers an Archaeology Program called Dig It! Archaeology Adventures on Saturdays and Sundays beginning at 10 AM. It is free with museum admission. Call: (310) 440-4500, or visit its Web site at: www.skirball.org.

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has a dinosaur hall that features an extensive collection of fossils and full dinosaurs/ancient sea creatures. The museum also has the Dinosaur Encounters puppet show, which stars life-sized dinosaurs that teach children about how they lived. Ice Age Encounters features life-sized saber-toothed cat puppets. School groups that schedule their reservations at least three weeks in advance receive free admission! Visit the site: http://www.nhm.org/ or call (213) 763-DINO (3466).

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, located in San Jose, showcases a large collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt. See actual mummies (both humans and animals), learn how to play the ancient board game Senet in the gardens, and explore a replica of an Egyptian tomb. For more information, visit their web site: http://www.egyptianmuseum.org.

The Petrified Forest in Calistoga is a privately owned park containing the fossils of ancient redwoods. These giant trees were buried by lava when a volcano erupted nearby over three million years ago. For more information, call 707-924-6667 or visit their website at http://www.petrifiedforest.org/index.html

The San Diego Museum of Man has a special exhibition, Adventures in Photography: A Century of Images in Archaeology and Anthropology, open thru January 13th, 2013. This exhibit features vintage photographs of archaeologists and anthropologists at work. More information at: http://www.museumofman.org/exhibit/adventures-photography-century-images-archaeology-and-anthropology.

The museum also offers a unique journey through time and place. The Education Department has year-round school tours and classes on topics related to archaeology, Egyptology, and physical and cultural anthropology. Exciting summer school classes, scout programs, and family days are offered. The Children's Discovery Center gives kids a fun way to learn about life and death in ancient Egypt through interactive displays. The museum also has weeklong themed summer camps for grades K thru 6.

For more information, contact the museum's Education Department at: (619)-239-2001, or visit its website at: http://www.museumofman.org.

Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits features both indoor and outdoor exhibits. Outside, you can find Pit 91 and Project 23. At the famous Pit 91, visitors can watch from a special observation area as paleontologists and volunteers recover bones from beasts that died in the sticky asphalt deposits 28,000 years ago. Project 23 features fossil deposits found when the LA County Museum of Art began building a new parking lot. The deposits were moved just north of Pit 91, so the paleontologists could excavate the fossils in peace. Inside, you can visit the Fishbowl Laboratory, where you can see paleontologists at work in their laboratory. Visitors can also experience Ice Age Encounters (see NHM of LA County) at the Page on select days.

For more information call: 323-934-PAGE (7243), or visit its Web site at: http://www.tarpits.org.

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