Piti Theatre Co.’s annual DinoFest is evolving into something larger this year: Dino Trail Week.

Dino Trail Week, which kicked off on July 5 and continues through July 13, is an expanded version of DinoFest, with eight events spread across the Pioneer Valley. The week of events aims to educate the public on the rich history of dinosaurs in the very region where dinosaur tracks were first discovered.

The idea to expand DinoFest arose last summer, when the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT) was offering a grant to boost tourism. Jonathan Mirin, Piti Theatre Co.’s artistic director, started making calls to other local organizations to garner support to grow DinoFest.

“We actually didn’t get the grant,” Mirin said, “but I just felt like it was such a strong group and a worthwhile project that we decided to just go ahead.”

The organizations involved include Piti Theatre Co., the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association in Deerfield and its traveling pop-up exhibit Jurassic Roadshow; the Beneski Museum of Natural History in Amherst; Springfield Museums; the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke; the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls; the Rock, Fossil and Dinosaur Shop of Deerfield; and the Trustees of Dinosaur Footprints in Holyoke.

PVMA kicked off Dino Trail Week last weekend with an educational presentation on local history and fossils that was delivered by actors playing paleontologist versions of Ken and Barbie dolls. Another actor played Orra White Hitchcock, the wife of Edward Hitchcock, the scientist most widely credited with discovering fossils in the Connecticut River Valley area. The presentation included fossils from the Jurassic Roadshow’s collection, as well as food and prizes for attendees.

At Springfield Museums, Dino Day, offering a preview of expansions to its dinosaur exhibit, is Thursday, July 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The exhibit expansions will include new interactive portions, including skeletal legs of an allosaurus and emu that will allow museum visitors to compare the footprint size of a dinosaur and the flightless bird that likely descended from dinosaurs. Museum admission is required to attend.

“We really think that the time is ripe for a big push for paleo-tourism in western Massachusetts,” said Jenny Powers, director of science at Springfield Museums. “We’re hoping to be a big part of that.”

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The Great Falls Discovery Center is offering a “Kidleidoscope Story Hour” for children ages 3 to 6 on Friday, July 11, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The program will educate kids about dinosaurs that once lived in the Pioneer Valley. Later in the day, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Paul Olsen, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, will give a talk titled “Climate Cycles & Volcanic Singularities During the Dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs.”

The Discovery Center has trace fossils of dinosaur tracks on display, so joining the festivities of Dino Trail Week made sense, according to Visitor Service Supervisor Janel Nockleby.

“We’re happy to be a part of any valley-wide celebration of a really unique, special story here in the valley,” Nockleby said.

The Great Greenfield DinoFest, the event that started it all, will return on Saturday, July 12, from 10 a.m. to noon in front of Greenfield’s Second Congregational Church — the church where Dexter Marsh, a Greenfield resident who discovered dinosaur tracks in the area in 1835, once worked as a sexton. The event will feature games, live music and performances by Piti Theatre Co.

Additionally, the Great Falls Discovery Center will offer gel painting of dinosaur tracks on July 12, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. for participants ages 6 and up.

Dino Trail Week will wrap up on Sunday, July 13, with a Dino Family Fun Day at Wistariahurst Museum. The day entails a dinosaur-themed installment of the museum’s “sensory-friendly Sunday fun-day” series, a once- or twice-monthly series of events for families and individuals with sensory needs. Families can learn about dinosaur tracks and the official Massachusetts state dinosaur, the podokesaurus holyokensis, as well as indulge in sweet treats from Wake the Dead Donuts and beverages from GiGi’s Teas.

“This is a collaborative string of events that we want to bring back year after year,” said Emily Munsell, office assistant at the Wistariahurst Museum. “[Mirin] did a good job at bringing lots of people together.”

While the official week of festivities will be over, a bonus Dino Trail Week event will take place on Sunday, July 20, from 1 to 2 p.m. at Wistariahurst Museum. Sarah Doyle, director of the Jurassic Roadshow, will be giving a “Dinosaurs in the Driveway” talk about the dinosaur footprints leading up to the museum.

“My vision or hope is that, you know, any child growing up in the Connecticut River Valley would at least be passingly familiar with this story by the time they get to high school,” Mirin said.

He hopes that the week of education on the prehistoric will make people think about the future, too.

“A lot of people don’t know we’re in another age of extinction now, with massive species loss,” Mirin said, “so you’re making these connections and realizing what we have is fragile.”

He added, “This is one of the ways to really understand local history and know why this place is special.”

For more information on Dino Trail Week, visit dinotrail.org.

An earlier version of this story included incorrect details about a story hour at the Great Falls Discovery Center. The center is offering a “Kidleidoscope Story Hour” for children ages 3 to 6 on Friday, July 11, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The program will educate kids about dinosaurs that once lived in the Pioneer Valley. Later in the day, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Paul Olsen, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, will give a talk titled “Climate Cycles & Volcanic Singularities During the Dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs.”