A few months ago my son had his eighth birthday. One of the gifts, from my sister who is working close to Zion National Park, was an excavation kit. I had never seen one before, and when we opened the box we saw some small tools and a brick of sandy plaster. My eight-year-old went to town and stayed consumed with the excavation kit for four hours. Yes, you read that right, four hours. He was covered with dust by the time he was through, but he ended up with a shark's tooth and other fossil-...

A few months ago my son had his eighth birthday. One of the gifts, from my sister who is working close to Zion National Park, was an excavation kit. I had never seen one before, and when we opened the box we saw some small tools and a brick of sandy plaster. My eight-year-old went to town and stayed consumed with the excavation kit for four hours. Yes, you read that right, four hours. He was covered with dust by the time he was through, but he ended up with a shark's tooth and other fossil-...