Going Behind the Scenes with Smithsonian Researchers

As a new staff member at the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, I am just getting to know the resources it offers to teachers. I’ve learned, for example, that the publication Smithsonian in Your Classroom has been around since the bicentennial year of 1976. (It was then called Art to Zoo). The print version is mailed to elementary and middle school in the country; a PDF version is downloadable from SmithsonianEducation.org. It’s a great way for teachers to connect their students to the work of the Smithsonian—students who might never have an opportunity to set foot in a Smithsonian museum. And as I discovered last week, when the new issue arrived, it is also a way to have a pretty cool educational experience with a friend or two.

I read the issue aloud to my friend Christopher. Titled "Prehistoric Climate Change (and Why It Matters Today)" it tells the story of Smithsonian paleontologist Scott Wing, who has been searching for plant fossils from a time called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55 million years ago. During the PETM, global temperatures rose dramatically as a result of natural carbon-dioxide emissions. Scott’s work is now “relevant” because of parallels to our own time of rising carbon in the atmosphere.

In the issue's lesson, students examine 32 life-sized images of leaf fossils that Scott discovered in the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming. Through a process called "leaf-margin analysis," they are able to read the temperature during the PETM. With the background information and with these materials, I could imagine Christopher and me digging through the rocky soil of Wyoming in search of fossils that would provide insight into our planet's past-and future.

This issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom is just one of many in which students not only think like a scientist or historian, but also do the real work of science or history. There are lots of lesson plans out there, but I think this makes the Smithsonian’s lessons special. Take a look at "Tale of the Whale," in which students, like actual marine biologists, identify individual whales by their distinctive markings. Or "Stories of the Wrights' Flight," in which they, like actual historians, piece together events on the day of the first motorized flight by studying often-conflicting primary sources.

The new issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom serves as a nice preview of the “Climate Change” conference—Scott is one of the featured speakers. I look forward to reading future issues with friends, if only as a way to share the unique learning experience I’ve had in working at the Smithsonian.

Michelle Smith is director of publications and electronic media at the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies.

Jarrid Green is a former Smithsonian intern and recent college graduate from the University of Maryland.