Elizabeth Reetz, director of strategic initiatives at the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, was recently published by Science Friday as the culmination of her participation in the Science Friday Educator Collaborative.

This program is an annual cohort of experienced educators who design and peer review original, interactive curricula that focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and current scientific research. Reetz was selected for the 2019 Science Friday Educator Collaborative last winter from hundreds of applicants nationwide. Members of the cohort worked on their curricula for several months with Science Friday staff, and these resources are now published on the Science Friday Education site.

The STEM resource developed by Reetz, “What Did Ancient Civilizations Eat? An Archaeology Lab Experiment,” integrates real archaeological laboratory techniques and authentic archaeological data to teach data analysis and interpretation. Students learn about archaeobotany, the study of ancient plan remains and how humans interacted with them and generate their own classroom data through a specialized plant recovery technique called flotation.