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Paleontologist hopes to educate kids, adults alike

Scott Sampson arrived in Cleveland prepared for a hefty discussion about dinosaurs, a childhood passion he built into a professorial career. But it turned out he wasn't ready after all.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History had added a family event on their guest speaker's schedule for the heck of it. Because Sampson is the science adviser who appears twice as "Dr. Scott the paleontologist" on 30-minute episodes of "Dinosaur Train," an animated show broadcast daily on PBS Kids.

"We thought, 20, maybe 50 people would show up," Sampson said, of his January visit to the museum. "Seven hundred people showed up. More than 500 were kids. I met every single one of them."

As "Dr. Scott" on camera, and an expert adviser behind the scenes, Sampson helps the show and its creator The Jim Henson Co. convey educational lessons about dinosaurs and nature.

Leading the cast is Buddy, a naturally curious T. Rex who was born into a nest of bird-like Pteranodons. The animated family travels by train to the historical time periods when dinosaurs lived. They meet and learn about all kinds of species.

Sampson speaks with children after the cartoon stories to relay more facts and figures as well as dispel any misconceptions born from the fictitious stories. He signs off by encouraging children: "Get outside, get into nature and make your own discoveries."

"Getting kids connected with the natural world needs to become a national priority, for the health of our children and the environment," Sampson said, explaining how his tagline was a condition of his participating in the show. "Who's going to save a place they don't care about?"

After his Cleveland visit, Sampson is convinced many of the children who watch the show are paying attention. In January, "Dinosaur Train" attracted 1.6 million viewers of all ages. It was the second highest rated preschool program on PBS among kids 2-5 and the eighth preschool program overall with this age group, said Nicole Goldman, senior vice president for marketing and publicity for The Jim Henson Co.

Coincidentally, the series began airing in September within months of Sampson's general audience book "Dinosaur Odyssey," which arms parents with their own dinosaur knowledge. As a result of the separate projects, the Canadian-born paleontologist has been thrust front and center as a dinosaur expert and more broadly, "science communicator."

"We need to engage people in science - in new and meaningful ways. I've sort of taken on that role," said Sampson, who also produces a science blog called "The Whirlpool of Life" that connects and comments on ecological discoveries. "For both children and adults, dinosaurs are a great entry point into the Great Story, the epic of evolution that spans &quo

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