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Contact: Estella Zavala or Susan Cergol, 225-6437
Posted on: April 1, 2002

Three scholars from the Smithsonian Institution will visit TUSD schools May 1-3 thanks to a unique educational partnership that brings experts from the Smithsonian research and curatorial staff into schools across the nation to work with students, teachers and the school community. Details will be released next month after plans are finalized.

Each scholar will present some combination of public presentations, classroom workshops involving hands-on activities, and teacher in-service workshops. The visiting scholars are:

• Marilyn London, research collaborator in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, and consultant to the Rhode Island Office of the Medical Examiners, will discuss the field of forensic anthropology.
• David Pawson, senior research scientist in the National Museum of Natural History, will provide lessons about marine biology. Palo Verde High Magnet School teacher Kathy Krucker, who recently was named the Arizona High School Science Teacher of the Year, will coordinate this program.
• Robert Wyatt, Smithsonian lecturer and pianist who specializes in 20^th century American music, will present on the topic of American musicals and the role of musical theater in society, which will tie in with TUSD’s ongoing ArtsExpress programming offered through the Fine and Performing Arts Department.

Smithsonian Scholars in the Schools is a project of The Smithsonian Associates, the educational outreach arm of the Smithsonian Institution. The goal of this outreach is to share the Smithsonian "living treasures" as well as expertise with communities across the country.

TUSD is one of approximately 100 members of the Smithsonian Affiliates and currently the only school district in country to participate in this partnership. TUSD was selected largely because of its extensive multicultural artifact collection encompassing more than 10,000 pieces (including textiles, sculptures, costumes, tools, musical instruments, toys and creative works of art) from all continents around the world, exhibited in the district’s two traveling art museums, known as the ARTSmobile.

Other Tucson affiliate members include the Arizona Historical Society, Arizona State Museum, Tucson Museum of Art and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Smithsonian Scholars in the Schools is made possible by a generous gift from the Ford Motor Company Fund, a nonprofit organization that is supported by Ford Motor Company profits. Organized in 1949, Ford Fund supports other nonprofit organizations whose missions closely align with its five priority areas — education, environment, civic affairs and public policy, health and social issues, and arts and humanities.