LAKE STEVENS — Six-year-old Sathvik Anand is a die-hard dinosaur fan.
Sathvik, a kindergartner at Skyline Elementary School in Lake Stevens, invites you to learn about 101 dinosaurs in 10 days on YouTube.
It’s Dinosaur Week at Skyline — coinciding with National Dinosaur Day on June 1 — so Sathvik asked his mother to record 10 videos of him sharing facts about 101 dinosaurs on his YouTube channel.
“Did you know there are 1,000 species of dinosaurs?” Sathvik said. “That’s so many. I don’t know that many.”
In the video series, Sathvik explains how to pronounce each dinosaur’s name, their diets, in which period they lived and some of their special features.
What is his favorite dinosaur? That’s the Triceratops.
“I love Triceratops because they have two horns on top of their eyes and one tiny one on the nose,” he said.
If you ask him about his favorite dinosaur, Sathvik will point out that Triceratops had large frills, or crests, which is the band of bone around their heads; and that they were plant-eaters, or herbivores; and that they lived in the Crestaceous period about 68 million years ago.
“He comes up with 10 dinosaurs, and then he tells me, ‘OK, Mom, I’m ready now,’” said Shilpa Gopi, Sathvik’s mom. “The information is there somewhere in his brain, so my job is to just start him off. It takes him five to 10 minutes.” She said his videos don’t require much editing because her son knows his dinosaur facts.
His YouTube channel, Satvi’s Fun Club, was founded in 2020. In addition to sharing dinosaur facts, Sathvik explains the solar system, fanboys over superheroes and sings his original songs in videos.
On June 1, for National Dinosaur Day, Sathvik posted a “Dinosaur Challenge” video in which he identifies 101 dinosaurs — and specifies whether they’re a carnivore or an herbivore — in less than 4 minutes. It’s a challenge based off the SimplyFun game of the same name. He rattles off complicated multi-syllable dinosaur names like it’s nothing.
He has three books on dinosaurs that he references for dinosaur facts: National Geographic’s “Little Kids’ First Big Book of Dinosaurs,” “My Giant Fold-Out Book of Dinosaurs” by Roger Priddy and DK’s “First Dinosaur Encyclopedia.” He learned how to read when he was 4.
Six is young to be a YouTuber, but Sathvik isn’t the youngest one out there. That distinction goes to Ryan Kaji of Texas, who was 3 years old when he asked, “How come I’m not on YouTube when all the other kids are?” Now 9, his Ryan’s World channel is modeled after the toy review videos he loves to watch.
Sathvik has been interested in all things dinosaurs since a trip to the Tampa zoo in Florida when he was 2. He was transfixed by the “Dinos Alive” exhibit there.
Since that zoo visit, Sathvik has played with dinosaur Legos, dressed up in dinosaur costumes and collected dinosaur figures. He also likes to play ”Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” video games.
“I have so many dinosaur toys,” Sathvik said. “I don’t actually know how many. I haven’t counted them.”
Sathvik is enrolled in the Highly Capable Program in the Lake Stevens School District, in which students are provided differentiated instruction based on their interests.
“He is a very engaged learner; he’s passionate about everything that he does,” said Erin Hansen, his teacher at Skyline Elementary School. “He’s the type of student that will turn a regular assignment into a challenge for himself and go above and beyond all expectations. He thrives off learning interesting facts.”
As a HiCap student, Sathvik was challenged to make PowerPoint presentations — one sharing his research on fossils and another about the solar system — for Skyline Elementary. All of the slides are written in his own words. (A song Sathvik wrote about his school was also shared on the Lake Stevens School District’s Facebook page.)
His mom and dad had no idea their son was such a showman.
“He’s very engaging,” Gopi said. “When I ask him what he’s going to talk about, he’ll just list facts. When I turn the camera on, he puts so much expression into it. There are a lot of good moments.”
Hansen said Sathvik has helped her teach Skyline kindergarteners about dinosaurs for Dinosaur Week. They’ve learned about Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Ankylosaurusdinosaurs and Apatosaurus so far.
In addition to dinosaurs, Sathvik Anand also loves Legos, which he used to make models of a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)
“He loves sharing his knowledge,” said Hansen, who is impressed by his presentation skills. “He’s so excited to tell his friends facts. He’s very comfortable, he’s excited to do it. It’s just so cool to see a kid that young engaged and passionate about learning.”
It’s no surprise that the die-hard dino fan wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up.
“I think he would be excellent at it,” his kindergarten teacher said. “I can picture him doing that.”
Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.
If you stream
Learn about 101 dinosaurs in 10 days with Sathvik Anand on YouTube in honor of National Dinosaur Day, which was June 1. Sathvik is a kindergartner at Skyline Elementary School in Lake Stevens. Find his channel by searching for “Satvi’s Fun Club.”
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