Geology Museum open house set

A dinosaur drawing demonstration, an interactive program about the life of early miners in Michigan’s Copper Country and free rock samples for kids, will be among the special features at the UW Geology Museum open house to be held Sunday, April 30.

An annual tradition, the Geology Museum open house is a free family-oriented program intended to showcase the treasures of one of the country’s finest small geology museums. The free event in Weeks Hall, 1215 W. Dayton St., is an opportunity to see the museum’s exhibits of rocks, minerals, meteorites and fossils, including the skeletons of dinosaurs, a mosasaur, a mastodon and the flying reptile pteranodan.

This year’s program, 1-5 p.m., includes, “Way Back When – When Copper Was King,” an interactive program by Gary “Captain” Richards about the life and times of the early miners in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Meanwhile, all afternoon Sue and Earl Steininger will demonstrate how to draw dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. At 2:30 and 4 p.m., children can dig into the free rock pile and take home specimens for their own rock collections. At 2:45 p.m., learn about the museum’s rarest specimens in “The Museum Quiz,” presented by museum director Klaus Westphal.