The public soon will be able to watch as students at Wichita State University restore a mammoth tusk that was unearthed last month by crews working on a freeway construction project.

Mammoths, the largest land mammals known to have lived in North America, roamed along the front of the glaciers and southward as far as Texas and Florida during the Ice Age. In Kansas, their lives overlapped with the Clovis people, a nomadic group that likely came over the Bering Strait to what is now America.

Student volunteers are expected to begin working on the tusk Sept. 20 in a secure, glass-paneled room at Exploration Place. Aiming to accommodate school groups and other visitors, most of the restoration is expected to occur between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

The tusk, which is wrapped in plastic and a yellow foamlike substance, was delivered Thursday to the Wichita children’s museum and science center. It goes on display Saturday.

Until restoration begins, only a small portion of the fossil and the ends will be visible.

The chipped rings offer a clue to the age of the mammoth because the animals grew an ivory layer every year. Though an official count of the rings hasn’t been conducted, scientists estimate that the creature was 50 years old, 16 1/2 feet tall and weighing several tons when it died.

The tusk is delicate and shed chalky pieces as it was moved to the museum.

“This is shedding like a cat,” said David Hughes, associate anthropology professor, as he hoisted the largest piece onto a cart at Wichita State University. “Right now, it’s so fragile, it has no structural integrity.”

The first step is to clean the tusk and then coat it with a Superglue-like material that is supposed to make it rock-solid.

If the stabilization process goes badly, “all bets are off,” Hughes said.