Kindergarten students at Goodfellow Public School went on a virtual field trip to Alberta this week to learn first hand about dinosaurs.

Students interacted live with a paleontologist at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta, asking questions while watching real-time demonstrations and video clips through a video conference.

Teacher Sarah Sportun said it was an excellent experience for the students.

“They got to ask the questions in front of the screen and the palentologist would actually recognize them,” she said. “He’d say things like ‘nice pink shirt’ so the kids really made the connection that they were talking to him right there.”

For the past few weeks students have been studying dinosaurs through math, writing, reading and language activities.

The video conferences, held Tuesday and Wednesday, were the conclusion of the unit.

Students asked questions on everything from how the dinosaurs became extinct, to how large were dinosaur eggs?

The paleontologist showed fossils, ferns and the students’ favorite — a huge dinosaur toenail.

Teacher Nicola Strachan said the virtual field trip helped the students better understand the topic.

“It’s really hard to teach kids this young about something they can’t see,” she said. “When you have the opportunity to show them and to let them ask questions they get it more than they would if you just tried to talk to them from books.”