Amanda Mayo-Saalwaetcher
Math and Science teacher, Cleveland, Mississippi
Amanda teaches Earth and Marine Sciences as well as Math Lab at her school in Mississippi. Last year, she applied for and received a NASA Artemis generation Moon Tree sapling for her school!
“Participating in the DIG program made me really appreciate museum outreach even more. It also gave me amazing background into how to answer "big questions" from students, such as how to explain complex topics such as the geologic time scale to middle school students.”
“We live in a very small town... many of my students do not know about the multitude of careers that are available outside of our town.”
When Amanda recounted her adventures in the field to her students, they were enthralled. “Bringing back pictures, experiences, and memories had [my students] asking about all kinds of different sciences and science careers they had never previously thought available to them.”
Sally Knipfer
Middle school teacher, Wenatchee, Washington
Sally is a health sciences teacher in Washington state. She works at a Title 1 school where 80% of families live in poverty. As a DIG Field School graduate, she has access to a special set of Burke Museum resources, including DIG boxes.
“I used this amazing partnership this winter and ordered the microfossil sorting box for our 7th graders at my school. The students in the classroom sorted and identified the fossils at the end of their Paleontology unit.”
“Each day in the DIG field school you learn field skills, reading a map, using GPS coordinates, identifying rock layers, identifying fossils, etc.”
"You are put to the test and driven to a site with your “team”, where you are then expected to organize yourselves, find your research location and... determine if UW should still consider it a fossil site. That evening, with your group, you design and give a creative presentation on your finding, with evidence of course!” Sally’s site was full of microfossils, and she personally found a tooth from a ray.
Isabel Shinnick-Gordon
High school teacher, Edmonds, Washington
Isabel teaches a zoology course for juniors and seniors at her high school. This elective is a common choice for students who want to avoid stereotypically ‘harder’ classes like chemistry or physics.
“Many of our students are folks who don't see themselves as scientists, and... have a hard time engaging with things they don't feel are "tangible", so being able to actually see and feel what we're learning about is really meaningful.
At the DIG Field School, Isabel got to meet zoology graduate students who help with paleontology in the field. They talked about the connections between zoology and paleontology, and how to explain the concepts to students.
“I was definitely a "dino kid" when I was younger, but as an adult I had thought that most paleontology field work had already been done. But at the DIG program I got to hear about all of the different projects students and professors were working on and see how alive the discipline of paleontology still is.”
After receiving the microfossils DIG Box, Isabel’s students were enthralled. “Students normally glued to their phones were engaged in looking for tiny fossils. It's affirming for them to, in just a few weeks, build the knowledge and skills to identify fossils, actually sort fossils, and then use the fossils as data to interpret past environments.”
“It was meaningful to know that these were real fossils and were from the Burke Musuem and going back to the Burke Museum for their research. Our students are all familiar with the University of Washington, and it's a dream school for some of them.”
Luke LePage
High school science teacher, Bound Brook, New Jersey
Luke teaches Special Education Science for high schoolers. His school has a high number of ESL students, primarily Spanish speaking, and Luke strives to include locations from his students’ home countries in his curriculum.
This spring, Luke will be incorporating the DIG Boxes into his lessons. These resources give students hands-on experience with fossils from the Burke Museum: “The opportunity for students to perform real life science cannot be understated.”
“I hope to use my experience at the DIG School, as well as the many resources they provide, to spark an interest in the sciences (particularly geosciences) for my students.”
“The DIG program gave me confidence to teach more about dinosaurs, specifically the End Cretaceous extinction event.” Luke especially enjoyed learning about the rise of mammals after the K-Pg extinction, and how that led to modern humans."
“One of my favorite memories from DIG was macro fossil day. Getting to put the cast on the Triceratops and learn about field prepping fossils for transport back to the lab was fascinating.”
