Digging into the past

Last week, representatives from the Teton Science Schools (TSS) were in town to participate in their annual week-long teaching collaboration with Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD #2) Science Summer School.

According to the TSS website, their mission as a school is to "connect people, nature and place through education science and stewardship." They are based out of Jackson, Wyo. - and although a portion of their work is solely based out of the Yellowstone region, the Teacher Learning Center segment of the school gives them the ability to work in places such as Carbon County.

This year, the theme was Digging into the Past: Local Archeology. According to Kate Bodey, Learning Center and Graduate Program Faculty at TSS, through the Teacher Learning Center of TSS, there is a different topic covered during the week-long event every year.

"So last year was weather and climate, the year before was energy, this year's archeology," Bodey said.

The statement of purpose that determined the goals for the week was "to engage students in the exploration, discovery and study of past local cultures and thus deepen students' relationships with the human and natural communities in Carbon County."

Each day, students learned about different archaeological topics throughout the region that were also related to the region, instilling a sense of place.

On Monday, students learned about the basics of Archeology at the Saratoga Elementary School and Saratoga Museum- such as what they could learn about Carbon County through archeology.

Tuesday, the group spent time at the Encampment Museum and Turpin Tie Camp, learning about tie hackers and how they affected local riparian communities.

Mining was the topic on Wednesday, where they went up to Hanna to learn about the impact mining had on the local community.

Thursday was their research day, where they spent time investigating a variety of topics related to archeology in Carbon County. In addition, families and students were invited to a "Mini Rendezvous Family Night," where a potluck was served and demonstration stations were presented.

Friday, students learned about Native Americans. In addition, they presented their research findings from the day before to an audience.

"This year we really hit working with the three museums. The Forest Service supported us with some information on tie hacking and places to help us with some off our scientific studies, and then the mine has been a partner and the Bureau of Land Management out of Rawlins," said Bodey.

TSS has spent a number of years participating with CCSD#2 schools to create this annual event.

According to Bodey, "We've had this relationship for eight (plus) years. Fifth year of summer science camp - and that's funded through the bridges program so it has some state and federal funding."

In addition, Bodey says that the program has been so successful in Carbon County, that other towns in Wyoming have used it as a model with the TSS; which have also yielded successful results.

One region in particular that Bodey mentioned was in Lander, Wyo.

"We do work with a few other summer schools to support this, and a lot of the work that we do is modeled off of the work that we do in Carbon County," Bodey said. "That is because I feel that we have really good collaboration and model, so they were really impressed with it."