PINHEAD INSTITUTE: MORE FROM SCHOLARS IN THE SCHOOLS

03 Apr PINHEAD INSTITUTE: MORE FROM SCHOLARS IN THE SCHOOLS

Throughout the school year, the Pinhead Institute brings acclaimed scientists into regional schools – Nucla, Norwood, Ridgway, Ouray, and Telluride – to lead labs, experiments, workshops and field expeditions for students in grade school through high school. Through the program, literally thousands of students each years get exposed to real-world applications of the scientific method.

Dr. John Steinberg has been a Senior Scientist at the Fiske Center (UMass) directing a multi-year project in Northern Iceland to understand the formation of property rights during the Viking Age and after (AD 874-1700). Buildings from the Viking Age in Iceland were constructed out of turf and are now buried in deep wind-blown deposits, thereby making them almost impossible to identify, except using remote sensing. Dr. Steinberg uses GIS and shallow geophysics to study settlement patterns to understand broad trenches over the landscape.

As part of the Pinhead Institute’s Scholars in the Schools Program, Dr. Steinberg visited with students from the Naturita, Colorado schools to tell them more about his research. Here is what the kids learned…