In June 2025, we hosted an exciting school show for Key Stage 2 classes in our lecture theatre. Dinosaurs Down Under! gave students the chance to discover Australia’s dinosaurs as well as the UK’s fossil heritage and local discoveries.
We were very fortunate to have Professor Flint, a scientist and storyteller, join us at the Society for this exciting event during his recent trip to the UK. Flint uses songs to take pupils on a learning journey through singing, discovery, and fun!
The show aimed to cover three learning objectives:
- Science as a human endeavour: What does it mean to be a scientist, and how has that changed? Who gets to be a scientist, and how do we overcome challenges and barriers?
- Science understanding: The importance of learning about existing organisms to help us understand the past: of comparative biology across species. Understanding how to become a fossil, of how unlikely it is, and how this informs us about the sparsity of the fossil record.
- Science enquiry skills: How do we know what we know? How do we know what is true and what is not true? The importance of realising that it’s okay not to know things, and that not knowing presents an opportunity to discover and learn.
We welcomed two KS2 classes to the Society for the one-hour show, where they were transported down under to learn more about dinosaurs in Australia and where they fit in the rest of the world. Pupils got to put their fossils knowledge to the test whilst exploring the UK’s fossil heritage and local discoveries through catchy songs. This included the story of fossil collector and dealer Mary Anning, and learning about her story through song had everyone in the room singing along with shouts of ‘Mary Anning!’.
Having recently created an album about Mary Anning called 'These Curious Things!', Professor Flint took the opportunity during his UK visit to learn more about Mary Anning's story, see her discoveries, and walk in her footsteps. This led to him visiting the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival, as well as the Geological Society, which he sited as being essential to him in exploring Mary's story.
While the 'Dinosaurs Down Under!' show was about Australian dinosaurs, Professor Flint has found that the connections to local fossils and Mary Anning’s story are just as important. With this in mind, Professor Flint is now looking to re-work his live show, and tour the UK with it in the future.
Professor Flint’s Mary Anning album ‘These Curious Things!’ is out now.
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