The Brief

For the first time ever, the La Brea Tar Pits is on the move across Los Angeles.

The Tar Pits trailer is bringing the Ice Age to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. It takes younger students on a journey back in time to tens of thousands of years ago when giant sloths, mammoths, and saber-toothed cats roamed the L.A. basin.

The interior of the Tar Pit trailer features a prehistoric playground and several interactive exhibits for the students.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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The La Brea Tar Pits mobile museum visited its fourth school on Friday, Normandie Avenue Elementary in Vermont Square. Students in kindergarten through second grade had the chance to learn, explore, and play. With the large colorful trailer parked on the school’s blacktop, the learning begins before you even get inside.

One half of the trailer is covered with images of what Hancock Park and the La Brea Tar Pits look like today, and the other side features images of popular Ice Age megafauna. The idea is to help the students imagine what their backyard and neighborhoods might have looked like all those years ago.

Junior paleontologists

As the kids file into the mobile museum, the sounds of La Brea Tar Pits paleontologists scraping and working away on fossils plays softly in the background. They’re guided through interactive anatomical puzzles of a dire wolf, a saber-toothed cat, and a giant ground sloth before they get to become paleontologists too. They’re even invited to dig through black “tar streamers” to discover different extinct animals.

Students are able to interact with anatomical puzzles of a dire wolf, a saber toothed cat, and a giant ground sloth.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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There’s a lot more pictures than words in the exhibits, and museum educator Ashley Rowley said it’s so the space can be accessible to all students, no matter their age range or reading ability.

“They get to see what's happening, and they get to use their bodies to represent the concepts that they're learning,” she said. “I think that helps them to remember these ideas a little bit better.”

Free access

The mobile museum is free for the school and the students. Nicole Duran, senior manager of education outreach for the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, said removing the cost barrier was a huge cornerstone for the program.

Duran said some families aren’t able to physically visit the museum, and some might not be able to afford tickets and parking.

“We know that those are barriers for certain folks in the community, so we want to ensure that they still have access to the museum’s rich resources,” she said.

Some of the previous classes that visited the mobile museum drew pictures and thank you cards for the educators, showcasing some of the animals and plants they learned about.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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Duran has been working on the Tar Pits trailer for about five years. She said she loves to be able to see the curiosity in the kids and watch how they can be successful through play and imagination.

The Tar Pits trailer is the third mobile museum from NHMLA. The Archeology Experience mobile museum has been teaching older elementary students about the descendants and the ancestors of indigenous communities in Southern California since the ‘90s, according to Duran. The Ocean Experience mobile museum focuses on our region’s marine biodiversity and is designed for middle and high school students.

If you want the La Brea Tar Pits mobile museum to visit your school, you can request it here. Registration for the spring 2024 semester opened in October and is expected to fill up quickly. If it doesn’t work out for spring, registration for the fall 2024 semester will open in March.