CYPRESS : Fossils Fuel This Class at Kids’ College

It almost like “Jurassic Park,” but it was a lot less frightening.

And for the 22 children ages 3 to 7, whose parents said they were too young to see the blockbuster summer movie, attending a recent dinosaur workshop at Cypress College supplied just enough excitement.

“ Tyrannosaurus rex is my favorite,” said Sarang Ratanjee, 6, of Anaheim, who held a replica of the 50-foot-tall, flesh-eating beast’s jaw over his head. “I like them because they eat the other dinosaurs.”

Sarang confessed he wouldn’t want to see “Jurassic Park” yet--it would be too scary.

“You have to keep it basic with the kids,” said Mark Roeder, a Costa Mesa paleontologist, who regularly teaches the two-hour workshop. “Nothing can run more than 15 minutes. After that, you have to color or take a break.”

The popular children’s workshop, which cost $6, is one of 155 classes offered at Kids’ College, held year-round on the Cypress campus and sponsored by the North Orange County Community College District. Started six years ago with 500 children, the program has grown considerably, attracting 3,000 young students this summer session.

The children’s curriculum includes classes in foreign languages, penmanship, karate, ballet, basketball, puppets and cartoons. Some classes, like the one on dinosaurs, last just one day; others, like a creative writing course for elementary school children, run for six weeks.

But as far as the children handling a six-inch allosaurus claw were concerned, dinosaurs ruled the Cypress campus last week.

“I love dinosaurs,” said Lucas Miller, 5, of Long Beach. “I have a whole box full of them at home.”

Roeder talked about a variety of dinosaurs, using slides to illustrate his points. He enhanced the presentation by letting the children examine fossils and reproductions of dinosaur parts.

“They can actually touch the bones and teeth in this class. Before, they could only see them in books,” said Parvin Ratanjee, Sarang’s mother, who also enrolled her 3-year-old daughter, Salma, in the course. “It gets them interested in learning.”

In spite of their young ages, some students already knew the names of many of the extinct animals. When a slide of a baby dinosaur flashed on the screen, Colleen Caldwell, 5, of Fullerton knew right away which kind it was.

“Isn’t that baby triceratops cute?” she asked her father, Richard.

During the class, the students had an opportunity to join the scientific community in determining what color the dinosaurs actually were. Nobody knows for sure, but the kids, armed with crayons, eagerly presented their own hypotheses.

Lucas insisted that his favorite dinosaur, the stegosaurus, had an orange head and body, brown spikes and black toes. “Definitely black toes,” he said.

Allison Pearson, 4, of Cypress offered: “I don’t have a dinosaur, but I like dinosaurs. And do you know what my favorite color is? Pink. I like pink dinosaurs.”

Roeder said he enjoys teaching the course to the youngsters, adding that it provides a good introduction to science.

“I got interested in fossils in elementary school, and it turned into a career. So you never know--maybe one of these kids will be a future paleontologist or scientist,” Roeder said.

The dinosaur class isn’t extinct for the summer either. Another workshop is being offered Aug. 2. For more information about Kids’ College, call (714) 995-2238.