ISU Graduate Students Host After-School Anthropology Event

On April 28 the Idaho Museum of Natural History at ISU hosted After School at the Museum, a program presented by the Department of Anthropology to engage elementary and middle-school learners in the four fields of anthropology: Archaeology, Biological, Cultural, and Linguistics.

According to representatives at the museum, 108 kids and 75 adults attended the event. Zack Beal, a graduate student and research assistant at the Department of Anthropology who helped organize the event said he was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. 

"The kids seemed to enjoy themselves," Beal said. "One museum employee remarked, 'people are into it.' My kids certainly had a good time."

The event featured different activity stations that were developed and run by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology: Kateea Paterson, Bobette Haskett, Jillian Everly, Bailey Dann, Julliette Bedard, Carrissa Harral, and Pam Pascali. 

Visitors were able to learn through a variety of teaching styles, including auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, and visual, among others, and had access to messages through ASL interpretation.

Beal said that several individuals, including the museum staff, made the event's success possible. The success of the event was evident in a letter that was forwarded to Beal the following Monday, which was written by a parent whose child attended the event. 

"Thank you for the rich experience that the Idaho Museum of Natural History staff members and their colleagues in other university departments provided at the after-school anthropology event yesterday," the parent wrote. "My daughter loved visiting each station and has continued to discuss things she experienced and learned in attending, and our family appreciates what ISU does to offer such events to members of the community."