Earthmobile Brings Nature to Students

A skunk, a bobcat and an owl were among animals seen by a group of 15 students at Reseda Elementary School on Thursday morning as they entered the Earthmobile, a reconstruction of a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains built inside a 48-foot tractor-trailer.

The sight of the animals frightened some of the children.

“These are all animals that are stuffed,” said Chris Stevenson, outreach instructor for the Earthmobile, a joint educational project between the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“They are the real things, but they are no longer alive,” Stevenson said.

Other animals inside the Earthmobile included a raccoon, a rattlesnake, a quail and a fox. Fossils, a portion of a rock cave with pictographs painted by Chumash and native plants were also part of the scenery.

The Earthmobile was at the school all week.

Earlier in the week, third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students took turns spending an hour inside the Earthmobile, where, in addition to viewing the items, they performed archeological digs on several miniature sites.

“I found an arrowhead,” said fifth-grader Shoshaun Porter, 11. “It was fun to dig and find something.”

Another outreach instructor, Susie Shaw, brought artifacts from the museum to individual classrooms.

“We try to teach them about the Chumash lifestyle 500 years ago,” Shaw said.

Fourth-grader Katie Marty, 9, brought her mother, Elizabeth, to the open house on Thursday.

“It’s so that Mom can learn something about archeology,” said Katie, who also found an arrowhead.

Elizabeth Marty was among about 50 parents who attended.

“I especially like the dig sites for kids,” Marty said.