Events
- Annual Convention
- Great Teaching Round-up
- Leading from the middle
- fall conference for faculty leaders
- Webinars
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Events: 2010 Geography and Anthropology Schedule
Geography and Anthropology Summary
Friday, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"Implications of Cognitive and Science-Education Research for the Use of Photographs and Illustrations in College Classrooms and Textbooks"
Speaker: Stephen Reynolds, Professor of Geology, Arizona State University
Saturday, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
“A Method-based Approach to the Taxonomic Allocation of Enigmatic Specimen KNM-ER 1805”
Speaker: Ricci Grossman, Professor of Anthropology, Blinn College-Bryan
Friday, March 5th, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"Implications of Cognitive and Science-Education Research for the Use of Photographs and Illustrations in College Classrooms and Textbooks"
Speaker: Stephen Reynolds, Professor of Geology, Arizona State University
Biography:
Stephen Reynolds grew up in El Paso and received an undergraduate geology degree from University of Texas at El Paso, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in structure/tectonics and regional geology from the University of Arizona. He then spent ten years directing the geologic framework and mapping program of the Arizona Geological Survey, where he completed the 1988 Geologic Map of Arizona. Steve currently is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where he has taught Physical Geology, Structural Geology, Field Geology, Orogenic Systems, Cordilleran Regional Geology, Teaching Methods in the Geosciences, and others. He helped establish and direct the ASU Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (CRESMET), and was President of the Arizona Geological Society. He has authored or edited nearly 200 geologic maps, articles, and reports, including the 866-page Geologic Evolution of Arizona. He recently published Exploring Geology (now in its second edition), an innovative college textbook designed from cognitive and educational research. This book, published by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, has been adopted by universities and colleges across the country and has received excellent ratings by students and faculty who have used the book. He also coauthored Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, a widely used structural geology textbook, and Observing and Interpreting Geology, a laboratory manual for Physical Geology. In addition to his structure-tectonics research, Steve has done science-education research on student learning in college geology courses, especially the role of visualization. Steve is known for innovative teaching methods, has received numerous teaching awards, and has an award-winning website. As a National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) distinguished speaker, he traveled across the country presenting talks and workshops on how to infuse active learning and inquiry into large introductory geology classes. He also has been a long-time industry consultant in mineral, energy, and water resources, and has received outstanding alumni awards from UTEP and the University of Arizona.
Saturday, March 6th, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
“A Method-based Approach to the Taxonomic Allocation of Enigmatic Specimen KNM-ER 1805”
Speaker: Ricci Grossman, Professor of Anthropology, Blinn College-Bryan
In the past, KNM-ER 1805 has been designated as a paratype for Homo erectus, H. ergaster, H. habilis, and H. rudolfensis. Based on its stratigraphic position within the KBS layer (~1.85mya) of the Koobi Fora Formation, this specimen can be temporally associated with all of these taxa, and with Paranthropus boisei. Although the majority of researchers attribute KNM-ER 1805 to the genus Homo, some suggest it might be more appropriately allocated to Paranthropus or Australopithecus, thus this issue remains unresolved. This study examines 32 metric and 122 non-metric cranial and mandibular features of several groups of African Plio-Pleistocene hominines to determine the phylogenetic status of KNM-ER 1805 relative to contemporary hominine taxa. It employs multivariate exploration techniques (principal components and discriminant function analyses) and phylogeny reconstruction methods: CONTML for continuous characters as well as PAUP (parsimony) and MrBayes (Bayesian analysis) for discrete characters. Results of the multivariate analyses reveal an association between KNM-ER 1805 and specimens allocated to A. africanus, P. boisei, and H. habilis. Cladograms produced from the phylogenetic analyses show little resolution, but in each instance where a clear separation between Homo and the australopithecines (Paranthropus and Australopithecus) is revealed, KNM-ER 1805 consistently groups with the australopithecines. These results suggest KNM-ER 1805 is not a typical specimen of H. habilis/rudolfensis or H. erectus/ergaster, despite the fact that it has been cited as a paratype for each of these taxa. Furthermore, these results suggest the affinity of this enigmatic specimen may not lie with the genus Homo at all.
Biography:
Ricci Grossman received a BA in Anthropology in 2004 from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. While at Texas Tech, her undergraduate research focused on human osteology and bone histology, culminating in an undergraduate thesis projecting reviewing the anthropological applications of bone histology in distinguishing human from non-human bone, as well as age-at-death estimation using human bone microstructure. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Biological Anthropology at Texas A & M University. Her research interests include Homo erectus and cranio-facial morphology, particularly the shift from H. habilis to H. erectus and the subsequent shift from H. erectus to Middle Pleistocene Homo. Ricci is also interested in the ways that researchers use quantitative methods to distinguish between Pleistocene taxa, and why different approaches lead to different conclusions. Ricci has been involved in excavations at sites in Texas, including several that were performed in conjunction with the Lubbock Lake Landmark, as well as the historic Presidio San Saba site in Menard, Texas. In August 2008, she traveled to Southwestern France to excavate at the Upper Paleolithic site of Chez le Rois. In addition to fieldwork, Ricci has worked on several presentations, including a poster entitled “Dental Enamel Hypoplasia and Middle Pleistocene Homo,” given at the 2007 Ecological Integration Symposium, hosted by Texas A & M University. She is currently working on a project that examines the continuous and discrete cranio-facial morphology of a specific fossil, KNM-ER 1805, with the intent of elucidating the phylogenetic relationship of this enigmatic specimen to contemporary Plio-Pleistocene taxa. This research will be presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Chicago, Illinois.
Geography Section Chair: Linda Murphy, Blinn College
Anthropology Section Chair: Randall Allison, Blinn College