Studying Animal Skulls with Jessie
June 2012
Jessie Atterholt is a PhD candidate at Cal in the Department of Integrative Biology. She’s been volunteering with BASIS for two and a half years, inspiring first-grade students to love science through her passion for it.
Her lesson, aptly named ‘You Are What You Eat, How Diet Shapes Teeth’, has been in circulation for the entirety of her time with BASIS, since she came up with and developed the idea with her friend, Elizabeth Ferrer. They have dedicated over 70 hours to give Berkeley and Oakland first-graders role models that sit far from the scientist stereotype of white lab coat, male, with crazy hair.
Jessie Atterholt is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley in the Department of Integrative Biology. She has been volunteering with BASIS for the last two and a half years, inspiring first-grade students to love science through her passion for it when she teaches them about using animal skulls to discover what kinds of eaters (herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore) there are in the world.
Her lesson, aptly named ‘You Are What You Eat, How Diet Shapes Teeth’, has been in circulation for the entirety of her time with BASIS, since she came up with and developed the idea with her friend, Elizabeth Ferrer. Together, they have dedicated over 70 hours to give Berkeley and Oakland first-graders role models that sit far from the stereotype of white lab coat, male, with crazy hair on the ‘scientist’ spectrum.
Jessie’s favorite part of being in the classroom is revealing her personal collection of animal skulls to the first graders. As you can imagine, pairing a classroom-full of 7-year-olds with giraffe, bear, lynx, and many other skulls can be a recipe for disaster.
No need to be fearful, Jessie and Liz have developed methods for classroom management that are impressive to say the least. After a bit of group discussion about the three types of eaters and defining characteristics of each type of eaters’ teeth, the class is split back up into their tables around the classroom and every child is asked to close their eyes.
Giggles of delight, groans from having to contain so much excitement, and the restless squeaks of shoes against the floor fill the classroom.
At this point, Jessie and Liz are moving around the class carrying the dismantled upper part of an animal skull in one hand, and the bottom jaw bone in the other. They set the skulls on the tables and, now that the energy-level in the classroom has almost reached maximum threshold, they say ‘Open your eyes’. Jessie says the ‘cries of delight and excitement make it feel more like Christmas morning than a science lesson’ in that moment.
In addition to showing off her amazing, personal skull collection (that she started when she was 8!), Jessie, and Liz, teach the students a little bit about what being a scientist is really like. They talk about being paleontologists and studying fossils. They will often tell the kids that “even things like poop can become a fossil. In one classroom one student followed up this statement by excitedly asking if vomit can become a fossil, too!”
Every classroom visit presents its own challenges, from reigning in the tangential questions that first-graders pose when talking about fossils, to classroom management changes, to special needs of individual students.
The most challenging experience that Jessie remembers is one where there were also several mothers, who only spoke Spanish, visiting on the same day. “It was saddening to not be able to communicate directly with them, especially because they seemed so fascinated by the skulls and had so many questions. Fortunately the teacher translated and their joy and excitement at seeing and learning was almost greater than the children’s. It ended up being an especially rewarding experience.”
Jessie visits classrooms to give back to the community, to instill the same passion for exploration in today’s students as she had the opportunity to feel when she was their age. The visits give back to her equally. They have helped her to focus on basic thinking like a scientist: asking questions, making predictions, and looking for evidence. “I not only am more focused in doing my own research, but it also really helps me to realize that this thought process is ultimately the most important point I can get across to students I teach, from 1st-graders to undergraduates,” she explains.
It is important to Jessie that these students, be they 7 years old or 21, understand the scientific method because she hopes “to help build a better future by increasing the number of scientifically literate individuals in our country.”
Jessie saves all the thank-you notes, letters, drawings, and messages that she receives from teachers and students after a classroom visit. “You know you really made an impact…especially when they use vocabulary from the lesson!”
Jessie will continue her PhD studies at UC Berkeley for the next couple of years, and she looks forward to continuing to volunteer with BASIS for the rest of her time in the Bay Area.