A week from today on January 20th PBS will be airing a Dinosaur Train special called Dinosaur Train Nature Trackers Adventure Camp. We received a screener of the episodes to check out before they air. The kids are fans of Dinosaur Train and they had fun watching these couple of episodes. Dinosaurs are a new favorite for Andrew. He loves to roar like a dinosaur.

I enjoy the program because there are some great dinosaur facts throughout the episodes. These new episodes are all about the kids getting out and exploring the environments around them. Rather than learning about specific species of dinosaur the kids learn about things like rivers, valleys, mountains and rainforests. Below is a brief couple of descriptions about the episodes.

Dinosaur Train Nature Trackers Adventure Camp – Story Descriptions

ADVENTURE CAMP: RAFTING
Buddy, Tiny, Shiny and Don go river rafting for the first time at Nature Adventure’s Tracking Camp. Their old pal Jess Hesperornis meets up with them and they all learn about erosion and the importance of rivers, before finishing up their adventure by cruising through some rapids!

Educational Objective: Rivers and streams are ribbons of water that start at some high point and flow downhill – often with streams gathering into rivers. Animals and plants living on land depend on rivers and streams for providing fresh water and nutrients.

ADVENTURE CAMP: MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
For their second outing at Nature Trackers Adventure Camp, Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don and other friends learn about the tree line as they set out to hike up a mountain. Shiny is determined to get to the top of mountain forest. Buddy wonders if they’ll be able to see anything from the mountaintop, through the tall trees. The kids are amazed that the higher they hike, the shorter trees and bushes get! Then they reach the tree line – a certain point on the mountain, where trees are really small because they don’t have enough air to breathe and the temperature is too cold. In the end, Shiny and all the kids use teamwork to all reach the mountaintop together!

Educational Objective: The timberline, or tree line, is a certain elevation on a mountain where the temperatures are colder, the air is thin, and the soil is less moist making it hard for most plants and trees to grow. Trees may grow as small shrubs. The amount of oxygen is less so it’s harder for animals to breath at the tree line and above.

ADVENTURE CAMP: ZIPLINING
The Nature Trackers Adventure Campers are back for another adventure and this time they’ll be travelling to a rainforest! Once they arrive in the dense rainforest, the campers explore different levels of the ecosystem, including the forest floor and the canopy of leaves at the top of the forest. After a hike through the rainforest, the campers’ fun adventure culminates as each kid takes a ride on a zip line, where they all get a bird’s eye view of the entire rainforest!

Educational Objective: Rainforests are very dense, warm, wet, forests that are home to a vast array of different life forms. Rainforests get a lot of rain, at least 70 inches per year. Rainforests, often called the “lungs of the Earth,” generate much of the oxygen we breathe.

ADVENTURE CAMP: CANYON HIKING
The Nature Trackers Adventure Campers are led by Mr. Conductor and Gilbert on a hike down a canyon, where they can see the different layers of the Mesozoic Era! At first Lily Lambeosaurus is reluctant to go, thinking that a new adventure sounds hard, but Don convinces her that a new adventure can be worth the effort. At the bottom of the canyon, the kids dig for fossils. Each Nature Tracker goes home with a “new” Ammonite fossil, and Lily is so glad she tried something new!

Educational Objective: Canyons are deep cuts in the earth’s surface. They are formed by erosion. Erosion is mainly caused by the flow of rivers. It takes millions of years for canyons to become the grandiose natural landmarks they are today. The bottom rocks in canyons can date back billions of years, beyond the Mesozoic. Canyons can also be formed by a shift of the earth’s tectonic plates.