How It Works

Excavating Adventures combines free online learning adventures with optional hands-on Dig Kits to create an exciting classroom experience kids can actually explore, uncover, identify, and collect.

Students begin with a free online adventure, follow clues, complete learning challenges, and help recover missing rocks, minerals, fossils, and specimens hidden around the world. Then, teachers can add real Dig Kits to turn the digital mission into a hands-on classroom excavation.

The Story Behind Excavating Adventures

Ari Raider, the Curator of the Excavating Adventures collection, needs help.

The Professor has stolen rocks, minerals, fossils, and other specimens from the collection and hidden them in secret locations around the world. Now it is up to student adventurers to follow the clues, complete the missions, and recover them all.

Every adventure sends students into an exciting setting where they solve challenges, uncover clues, and help Ari restore the collection one specimen at a time.

Discover. Identify. Collect.

Step 1: Start with a Free Online Adventure

Teachers can begin with any of our free online adventures. Each adventure is designed to be easy to use, engaging for students, and flexible enough to fit into many different classroom situations.

Students might explore a volcano, investigate an underground lab, search through a jungle, travel across a desert, dive into an ocean mystery, or follow clues through another exciting location.

Free online adventures work great for:

• Whole-class lessons
• Small groups
• Science centers
• Review days
• Sub plans
• Early finishers
• STEM enrichment
• Classroom transformations
• Fun Friday activities

The online adventures can be used on their own, which means any classroom can start exploring right away. But when you pair them with real Dig Kits, the experience becomes even more powerful.

Step 2: Add Real Dig Kits

Dig Kits are the hands-on extension of the online adventures.

After students complete an online mission, they can uncover real rocks, minerals, fossils, or specimens. This gives students something they can hold, observe, identify, compare, and collect.

Instead of just completing an activity on a screen, students get the excitement of a real discovery. The online adventure creates the mission. The Dig Kit brings that mission to life.

Step 3: Use the Dig Kits Your Way

Excavating Adventures Dig Kits are designed to be flexible for teachers.

You do not have to use the kit in one specific way. Each classroom can use the digs in whatever way works best for the lesson, schedule, class size, and activity style.

You can use Dig Kits:

• One dig at a time across several different lessons
• Up to six digs per adventure for a bigger classroom experience
• All at once for a full excavation event
• As rewards after students complete online missions
• As centers for small-group learning
• As a classroom transformation or special event

There is no wrong way to use them. The Dig Kits are made to fit your classroom, not the other way around.

One Dig Kit Works with All Online Adventures

One of the biggest benefits of Excavating Adventures is that the Dig Kits are not locked to only one activity.

A classroom Dig Kit can be paired with any of our online adventures. That means teachers can use the same kit format across different topics, missions, and classroom goals.

Students complete an online adventure, then uncover a real specimen as the hands-on payoff. This makes the kits incredibly versatile and easy to use again and again as the adventure library grows.

Dig Kits can support adventures in:

• Rocks and minerals
• Earth science
• Fossils
• Geography
• STEM activities
• Classroom rewards
• Review challenges
• Special classroom events

Why Students Love It

Students are not just completing an assignment. They are joining a mission.

Each adventure gives students a reason to keep going, and each dig gives them something real to discover. The collecting piece makes the experience even more exciting because students naturally want to recover more specimens and complete more missions.

Students are motivated to:

• Recover more specimens
• Complete more adventures
• Compare their discoveries
• Learn what each specimen is
• Trade, talk, and share with classmates
• Build their own collection
• Try to collect them all

The digging creates excitement. The collecting creates motivation. The adventure creates a reason to learn.

Why Teachers Love It

Excavating Adventures is built to be easy for teachers and exciting for students.

The free online adventures give teachers a ready-to-use activity, while the Dig Kits add a hands-on layer that feels like a real classroom field trip.

Teachers can use Excavating Adventures because it is:

• Easy to start
• Flexible to use
• Fun for students
• Great for hands-on learning
• Perfect for science engagement
• Useful for many classroom situations
• Designed to connect digital learning with real discovery

Whether you need a quick online activity or a full classroom excavation, Excavating Adventures can scale up or down to fit your classroom.

Free Classroom Kit Opportunities

Our mission is to get Dig Kits into every student’s hands.

That is why we are building ways for teachers to access free classroom kits whenever possible. We believe every student should have the chance to experience the excitement of uncovering something real.

Teachers may be able to get free kits through:

• Special giveaways
• Teacher contests
• Referral programs
• Free kit promotions
• Classroom partnership opportunities
• Community and PTA support programs

The online adventures are free so any classroom can begin. The Dig Kits take the experience even further.

The Full Excavating Adventures Experience

Excavating Adventures is part online adventure, part classroom field trip, part mystery mission, and part real excavation.

Students follow the story, complete challenges, recover missing specimens, and build a collection that keeps them excited to learn more.

The full experience includes:

• Free online adventures that teach and review important topics
• Real Dig Kits that turn learning into hands-on discovery
• A story-driven mission led by Ari Raider
• A mysterious Professor who has hidden specimens around the world
• Collectible rocks, minerals, fossils, and specimens students can recover
• Flexible classroom use that works for many different teaching styles

Ready to Begin?

Start with a free online adventure. Then add a Dig Kit whenever you want to bring the mission to life.

Whether you use one dig, six digs, or a full classroom excavation, Excavating Adventures is built to make learning feel exciting, memorable, and real.

Discover. Identify. Collect.