Here's what you need for fossil hunting:

Hammer

Dandelion weeder or spade

Clothes you can get dirty

Comfortable shoes

And, if you're 9-year-old Ali Callahan, a mom who's willing to drive you to your latest adventure.

Ali is studying Alabama history, and sometimes, that means getting her hands dirty. She and her mom, Rachel, and 5-year-old brother, Noah, are traveling throughout the state to experience places where the state's most important events occurred. They started with an overview of natural history at Anniston Museum of Natural History, and then dove deeper into Alabama's prehistoric years at Birmingham's McWane Science Center.

Read about their McWane visit on Rachel's blog, Grasping for Objectivity in my Subjective Life.

Did you know Alabama is great for fossil hunting? Ali does, thanks to her trip to McWane. Actually, the state is the best spot to hunt dinosaur remains east of the Mississippi River. McWane's Alabama Dinosaurs exhibit includes fossils from:

Appalachiosaurus, a tyrannosaur that averaged 22 feet long

the herbivore Nodasaur, which were slow creatures that walked on all fours

Dromaeosaur, a 9-foot-long carnivore that scientists believe hunted in packs

Ornithomimid, an herbivore with a diet mostly of fruit and insects

Pteranodon, a flying reptile with a 25-foot wingspan. It dined on fish

Ichthyornis, a 1-foot-tall bird that ate small fish

But once you leave the museum, you won't find any of these in the central part of the state, where Ali lives. A geological map offers clues about the state's history and what you might find there, and the Encyclopedia of Alabama explains the different regions throughout the state. In short, you've got to head south to find dinosaur bones. But in the Cahaba River, plant fossils are plentiful.

The state was once covered by water. After it receded, the changing land eventually converted the dead sea creatures into limestone. The changing climates and animals left behind a variety of fossils.

So Ali, Rachel, Noah and I check off the items on our fossil-hunting list and head to the Cahaba. The water is low due to Alabama's ongoing drought, but that means it's easy to find slate in the riverbed. This wasn't the Callahan family's first fossil-hunting excursion, but it was mine. Together, they demonstrate: Rachel held a hunk of slate steady and places the edges of the dandelion weeder at a seam. Noah and Ali took turns tapping the top of the tool with a hammer. After a few gentle taps at the right spot, rocks split open and revealed what's inside.

"Whoa. You can actually see the lines," Ali observed as she reveals a fern imprint.

Rachel took the opportunity to quiz her daughter on the world before her: "Ali, do you remember if a fern is a vascular or non-vascular plant?"

"Vascular," Ali exclaimed. The lines she identified were her clue; those lines are tubes that deliver water to the rest of the plant.

We spent a half-hour tapping into pieces of slate and dropping larger, denser pieces from a height to break open on the rocks at our feet. Eventually the kids became antsy, but Ali's lessons continued as she explored. Rachel shouted botany lessons while Ali scaled a rock wall nearby. Dicot! Monocot! Botany combined with history.

That's part of why the Callahans favor homeschooling. Rachel was homeschooled until she entered college, and she's used it as a way to customize her children's education. Ali is a grade ahead in math, and they're able to take field trips like this regularly.

"People think it's about sheltering away, when it's really about expanding and being more efficient," Rachel said.

She sees their Alabama history project as part of that. Ali might not get to discover fossils herself in a traditional classroom setting.

Rachel said, "The cool thing to me about fossils is when you open up a rock, you're seeing something no one has ever seen before."

And thanks to today's trip, I've seen a part of Alabama I hadn't previously.

IF YOU GO

Itching to go on a fossil hunt of your own? Learn more about paleontology in Alabama through the Alabama Paleontology Society or Birmingham Paleontology Society.

Visit McWane Science Center to learn more about Alabama dinosaurs. (It's currently closed due to flooding, but will reopen Nov. 9.) Read about its full collection, which isn't available to the public, on the center's website.

McWane Science Center

200 19th St. N., Birmingham, AL 35203

Hours: Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun., noon-6 p.m.

Admission: $13 adults; $9 children 2-12; $12 ages 65 and older. IMAX films available for an additional fee.

RELATED READING

"Alabama" by Barbara A Somervill introduces young readers to the state's history, geography, notable people and more.