Northwest Treasures ~~ A New TOS Review!

My son loves geology and dinosaurs more than your average 9.5 yo. He's actually been collecting rocks and gems and having fun studying them for the last few years. So much so that his birthday in March had a GEODE theme! So when we found out that we could learn a little more about Geology and Dinosaurs within the context of the Bible, I knew we'd have to jump on this review. We were given the opportunity to online dinosaur classes called Dinosaurs and the Bible as well as an introductory video called Taking the Mystery Out of Geology, both by Northwest Treasures.

The online course called Dinosaurs and the Bible is 6 lessons in length, all of which are right around 20 minutes in length. They are produced on Vimeo, but aren't videos per se. They are a series of slides that are narrated and taught by Patrick Nurre. The lessons cost a total of $39.99 (but are still on sale for just $19.99 - a 50% savings!) for all and will cover the following topics:

• How we Got Our Modern View of Dinosaurs (Lesson 1)
• The Classification of Dinosaurs (Lesson 2)
• Dinosaurs and the Bible, The Great Dinosaur Rush (Lesson 3)
• The Extinction of the Dinosaurs (Lesson 4)
• Dinosaurs and the Ice Age  (Lesson 5)
• Fossils, Age, and Soft Tissue  (Lesson 6)

Each of the lessons have a worksheet to help the student retain the information they have learned in the lesson. It is recommended that the worksheet be completed before going on to the next lesson. There is a full answer key which had the answers to ALL the worksheets (I was not clear on this and ended up downloading the key 6 times - LOL! but that was easily corrected by deleting the duplicates from my computer), including the comprehensive exam. The exam is 15 multiple choice questions with the answers right afterward. 

Example of Questions on worksheets

Example of the Exam

This video course is intended to help answer those burning questions we all have about the existence of dinosaurs, did they exist according to the Bible, how to rectify what we believe with what mainstream thought is. You can watch the trailer for more info. You can even purchase a fossil kit to go along with the 6 week course (which I am thinking about doing in the future for any other online courses we end up getting.) 

The first few lessons talk about many key terms including paleontology, uniformitarianism, the difference between earth science and earth history, evolutionary ideas and the main people of the time setting forth these ideas -- like Rosseau, Buffon, Owen, and Darwin. It also goes into some detail of how dinosaurs are classified and that they are called "terrible lizards" even though now evolutionists don't think they were lizards at all.

Later lessons discuss how and when dinosaurs disappeared. As many know the modern theory is that they were destroyed by an asteroid or something similar that crashed many millions of years ago contrasting the Biblical account of the whole world Flood. The next lesson discusses that the dinosaurs that may have survived the Flood could have been completely annihilated by the Ice Age which would have happened around this same time. We also learn about the disarticulation (bones found all over and not connected) of the dinosaur bones. The final lesson tells us all about the incorrectness of radiometric dating as well as more about fossils and how the way they are preserved is another finding that really does support The Flood.

My husband was also watching and listening along with us. Here are some of his thoughts: "The videos format was pretty good and the narrator used age appropriate language for this type of presentation. They were not kitchy or cheesy, but very informative with a lot of facts without being too overwhelming. The grade range of 5th and above is right on par for what I saw/heard."

My older girls seemed to really enjoy these lessons and had many of their own questions or comments based on other similar talks or readings they have had in relation to both dinosaurs and fossils in general. We had to pause the short lessons many times so we could go off on a little bunny trail. It was fun to see some light bulbs going off about previous lessons on these same topics were still clear in their minds. My son also enjoyed the lessons even though much of the technical wording did elude him a bit.

We also were able to watch a another course called Taking the Mystery Out of Geology, which I thought would be right up my son's alley. He is VERY interested in rocks and minerals and all those sorts of things. The video was still just about 20 minutes, but this one dealt more with how to teach geology from a Biblical framework. It went through 13 terms and their definitions, many were a little difficult for my 9yo son, but he is a bit under the recommended age range. Mr. Nurre talked about terms such as paleontology, pertification, sedimentation, imbue, philosophy, and contrived mechanism -- all of which are terms that are good to know for the study of geology, but a little above my son at this time. Many of the slides for this course were words and definitions and not as many pictures. 

A favorite rock of my son.

One thing my son remembered most was that the narrator mentioned that the Flood happened only 4500 years ago. He liked hearing this since a lot of typical science shows generally relate stuff to millions of years ago. Another very true statement we liked was that "geology is subject to beliefs that are not testable." If you'd like to learn more about this course you can watch it's trailer and it can be purchased for just $5.

All in all we very much enjoyed these courses. I think my son would LOVE one of their kits like the Rock Identification Made Easy Kit! Another I think he would enjoy is called Geology for Little Eyes which goes up to 3rd grade and comes with 3 books covering rocks, minerals, fossils, dinosaurs, and volcanoes as well as 65 samples of rocks, minerals, and fossils. There's even a series for high school called Northwest Treasures Curriculum Project. So much cool stuff! Some others on the Crew reviewed another online course called Geology and Apologetics so be sure to click the link below to learn more about it. You can find Northwest Treasures on Facebook and Pinterest.