This was a lockdown project to create some fun dinosaur resources for primary schoolers. The idea was triggered when a little parcel arrived from my wonderful Aunt with some (real) ammonite and Orthoceras fossils from her teaching days. The kids were enthralled so we looked at photos of T-rex claws and Megalodon teeth. Then I discovered that some museums, private collectors and research organisations had very generously made 3d scans of their fossils available online for free. I decided to make a mini-dinosaur museum in a box that the kids could share with their classmates when they returned to school (since excursions and museums were off limits for the indefinate future).

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Making the dinosaur museum in a box

I downloaded a selection of models that the children approved of (heavily weighted towards teeth and claws), cleaned the models up to make them 3d printable (view/download models) and printed them out on my consumer grade 3d printer (Flashforge Dreamer) at high resolution. To finish them, I sanded them down lightly, primed them with a grey plastic primer paint and then painted them with ordinary student acrylics.

To complement the real and replica fossils I added;

  • Some realistic toy dinosaurs (from Safari Ltd).
  • Books on dinos and fossil hunting.
  • Some silicone moulds (using food safe silicon & the 3d printed models) so the kids could cast their own ‘fossils’.
  • A timeline, showing the different epochs. Download timeline (Print at A2 size to get 1cm = 1 Million years. I got it printed on Tyvek and it’s held up well so far).
  • Cards with some details on each fossil & toy. Download cards.
  • Some activity ideas.

I had great fun making this project and it has been a hit with the kids too. A big thank you to all the organisations and people who shared the 3d data to make this possible.