The first few years of the author's career, she struggled to find a science experience that would grab her sixth-grade students from the start--something that would let them know that coming to class would be worth their time and that they would be learning in an exciting environment. She finally found it: The perfect project idea bubbled up as the author discovered a few pages in the science textbook dedicated to paleontology and archaeology and the science methods used in those professions. The scientists' processes intrigued her, and she began to see teaching possibilities of connecting a paleontological "dig" with learning scientific methodologies--the topic that traditionally started the year off in science. A brief list of resources concludes the article.