ANTHRO-TEACH outreach at local Birmingham city schools

In November and December, 2009 the UAB ANTHRO-TEACH program and students from Lori Cormier and Sharyn Jones' Voyage in Anthropology course (ANTH 481/682) visited local schools in the Birmingham area to conduct outreach workshops. Students are "excavating" mock archaeological sites in dig-boxes and learning about marine biodiversity (left) with Megan Sunderman.

(photos by Lindsey Whiteaker).




Pictured above are Lenny Blottin and Parker High School students during a workshop on Australopithecus. Lenny's presentation included activities from BUILDING BODIES: Student Activity Pages Primate Bipedalism: Understanding Standing Up (see also: the Becoming Human site). Students reconstructed human, chimpanzee, and Australopithecus skeletons, learned about bipedality, the hominid fossil record, and paleoanthropology.

Jade Delisle and Megan Sunderman both presented workshops on marine resource exploitation and environmental archaeology in Fiji, drawing from lesson plans that educate students about the sea. Caitlin Aamodt did a poster and presentation on Place Names in Fiji, based on her research in Fiji this summer. Below are pictures of Caitlin, Jade, and Lindsey Whiteaker at Parker High working with students.

Anne Sorrell directed a workshop on herbal medicine and a history of native healing. She drew activities from the Alabama Learning Exchange and a lesson plan on herbs vs. pharmaceutical medicines. Anne's poster is pictured below.

Chris Pass (above) at Holy Family Elementary School teaching 1st graders about Japanese culture. Photos by Sharyn Jones.

Lindsey Whiteaker at Holy Family teaching students about healthy eating and how to make smart food choices.

Ashley Wilson is pictured below at Holy Family, directing a workshop and poster presentation on the Ethnohistory of Food in Folk Remedies of the Alabama Slaves. Ashley has been studying slave narratives and working on an associated ethnohistory project for over one year now.

Dave Cunningham made a presentation on Ethnomusicology and the culture of music across the world. He illustrated how to use a variety of instruments and taught the kids at Holy Family to play drums and didgeridoos.

Anna McCown discussed what we can learn from studying garbage in Fiji. She based her presentation on a research project she did with Caitlin on the island of Nayau, while conducting an NSF REU fellowship in Fiji's Lau Island Group. Anna and Caitlin plan to present their findings at the Southern Anthropological Society meetings this year.







Mallory Messersmith conducts a workshop about Archaeology and her research in Fiji, at Holy Family Elementary. Mallory is in the process of analyzing a curious archaeological feature that she excavated on the island of Nayau, (Lau Group, Fiji); we think this feature may be a large ritual earth oven, or lovo. She plans to present her data at the Southern Anthropological Society meetings.

UAB students participate in FBI Forensic training session

Dr. Bruce Wheatley of UAB coordinated a a field excursion with a group of UAB students to attend the FBI's annual emergency response team training program at Oak Mountain State Park.
There were about 3 burial sites in the woods that search teams eventually found, a booby-trapped cabin and car that was blown up. Some students searched for timers and batteries used to blow up the car. Others helped with the excavation of skeletal remains, finding shovel prints and other tool marks used by perpetrators. Dr. Wheatley directed the UAB team, who found a pistol in the cabin and de-fused a light sensitive timer rigged in a tool box in the house.

Our National Science Foundation REU Fiji Program website is up!

NSF REU Student Fellows and faculty preparing seaweed salad and fishing with Fijians, Salia village, Nayau (Photos by S.Jones).

Check-out our new NSF REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) Fiji Program website at:

http://hulamo.com/2009_NSF_REU_Fieldschool_in_Fiji/Home.html

The Fiji REU program engages students in interdisciplinary problem based research, exploring long-term dynamics in human interaction with the environment. Project participants learn about anthropology (the study of humans and culture) as well as historical ecology, a discipline focused on the relationships between people and both physical and biological environments. In the context of various study areas in Fiji’s Lau Island Group, students and faculty engage in meaningful scientific research incorporating the methods of anthropology and ecology.

Mallory Messersmith filming a fishing expedition on Nayau (Photo by S.Jones)

Students’ activities and projects include: archaeological surveys, mapping, and excavations; collecting and analyzing ethnographic data on resource exploitation and foodways; conducting lab analysis of archaeological materials; working with database systems and computer software; and interpreting data in written, digital, and oral presentations for the academic and general public.

Checkout the new website for more information on this interdisciplinary fieldschool and research program (plus more photos!):
http://hulamo.com/2009_NSF_REU_Fieldschool_in_Fiji/Home.html

Anthropology of Slavery Course at UAB in the Birmingham News

Dr. Jack Bergstresser, Director of the Tannehill Ironworks Museum and the Slave Quarters Dig at Tannehill Sate Park, talks to UAB students enrolled in the Anthropology of Slavery Course about excavation at the slave quarters. Photo by S. Jones.

The Birmingham News and UAB Media visited our Anthropology of Slavery course at Tannehill State Park on Thursday May 21. Here is the link to the news article and webcast:
http://blog.al.com/living-news/2009/05/uab_students_are_unearthing_sl.html

UAB students engrossed in excavations.


Bass Cemetery Fieldtrip-
View of the east side of Bass Cemetery, a fascinating cultural and historical resource in Irondale. Photos by S. Jones.

Students and instructors, Dr. Cormier, Dr. Mumford, and Dr. Jones visited the Bass Cemetery in Irondale for a fieldtrip and discussion of the Archaeology of Slavery and Burial.
Anthropology of Slavery students with Dr.s Mumford and Cormier.

Early 18th century burials at Bass Cemetery.

Alabama Academy of Science Meetings, University of West Alabama, March 27, 2009

Dr. Jones talks with anthro students Anna McCown, Mallory Messersmith, and Anne Sorrell at the anthropology session

Sharyn presented a paper at the anthro session, Cannibalism in Fiji?

UAB faculty, students, and friends at the Science Education session. James Cormier presented a paper, Supersize It! A Look at Large-Scale Anatomy Exhibits in Informal Science Education.

Karen Utz (UAB history faculty and Sloss Furnaces museum curator) chaired the Science Education session. Lori Cormier later gave a paper in the anthropology session, The Historical Ecology of Human and Wild Primate Vivax-type Malarias in Amazonia.

Professor Wheatley talks with UA graduate student Erika Steele after he presented his paper at the Science Education session, Teaching Science and Evolution in Anthropology



Professor Wheatley sported his monkey tie for the occasion



Dr. Jones talks with UAB history graduate student Heather Guy. Sharyn and Lori presented a poster at the Science Education session, ANTHRO-TEACH: Developing Scholar-Teachers and Student Scientists using Alabama Native American Collections

SAS: Southern Anthropological Society Meetings -- March 13, 2009

Caitlin Aamodt (left) just before she presents her first professional paper, "Cultural Divergence and Convergence in North and South Louisiana: Social Change from the Early Settlement of Caddo Parish to the aftermath of Hurricance Katrina" at the Southern Anthropological Society meetings in Wilmington, North Carolina


Sharyn and Lori's ANTHRO-TEACH poster at the SAS meetings. UAB undergrad students Caitlin Aamodt, Mallory Messersmith and Anna McCown participated in the meetings as well.

Sharyn and Mallory at the SAS session "Theory and Ethnography"

On the Road Home from the SAS Meetings...

Drs. Jones and Cormier discover a new gorilla species in South Carolina