Okay, so the oldest known skeleton didn't actually visit the Ensworth campus today! However, the middle school students did have the privilege to skype (video conference) with Dr. Tim White, project co-director and paleontologist Professor of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of California Berkeley, and one of the members of the team that discovered Ardi. Ardi is a 4.4 million year old female partial skeleton discovered in the Ethiopian desert on a investigation that started 17 years ago. After a brief introduction from Dr. White on Ardi, a select number of students were invited to ask Dr. White questions. Walking up to the computer screen, the students were given the opportunity to engage in a conversation with Dr. White as he answered the questions most interesting to them. " What made you become a scientist?" asked Eden Chaberski. Another student wondered, “What do you think Ardi sounded like?". The students listened intently as Dr. White described what he looks for in a fossil site, what you can learn from studying fossils, and what he learned about human development through his discovery of Ardi. Thanks to Skype and Dr. White, the students were able to connect what they learn in the classroom to actual current events that are shaping science today.
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