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Teacher Adds Author To Resume

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By RONNIE BLAIR rblair@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - A Taylor Elementary School teacher who found inspiration in a 375-million-year-old fish can now add published science author to her list of credits.
Heather Hill wrote a science lesson that guides middle school students through an exploration of a fish fossil called Tiktaalik roseae. Her lesson has been published on a computer CD titled "Evolution in the Classroom" and produced by the Geological Society of America.

"This is brand-new for me," Hill said. "It's quite exciting."

The fossil made a scientific splash after it was found in 2004 in the Canadian Arctic by a team of scientists led by Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

The find was hailed as one of the missing links that marked the transition between some fish and four-legged land animals.

It's the kind of discovery that excites scientists and captivated Hill.

"It's nerdy, I know," Hill said.

Hill, a 23-year-old in her first year of teaching, created her lesson plan, "Fossil Vertebrates from Water to Land," as a geology class project when she was at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., where she majored in integrated science.

She wrote the lesson plan in April 2007, spending about 16 weeks from start to finish as she delved into Earth's Devonian Period, when Tiktaalik roseae lived.

Although a fish, the creature shared some characteristics with land-dwellers. It had fins, scales and gills, but its neck, flat head and ribs gave it a resemblance to early four-legged land animals.

Tiktaalik roseae, which grew to be as long as 9 feet and lived in shallow water, probably never walked on land. Scientists say further study on that point could prove them wrong, though.
Tiktaalik roseae is now something of a fossil celebrity, with its own Web page at tiktaalik.uchicago.edu.

Hill's lesson plan includes a short Tiktaalik roseae tutorial for the teachers and classroom activities for the students. One worksheet, for example, requires students to use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast fish, amphibians and Tiktaalik roseae.

Steve Mattox, who chairs the geology department at Grand Valley State University, said Hill went above and beyond the basic requirements for her class assignment, pushing her abilities beyond the comfort zone.

First she needed to master the science. Then she had to figure out how to best teach what she had learned to students.

Mattox said he likes to up the ante for his students and challenge them to produce work of publishable quality. Most students never do.

In the past five years, he said, about 10 have, and Hill is one of those.

"Heather's made a wise investment of time, and it paid off," Mattox said.

Sometime after she completed her lesson plan, the Geological Society of America contacted Mattox and asked whether he knew of any good lessons that would fit into the "Evolution in the Classroom" CD the society was working on.

"I said, 'Yes, I do,'" Mattox said.

Hill teaches elementary school, so she's not likely to teach her lesson plan anytime soon. The target audience is seventh and eighth-grade students, although Hill said the lesson would work at the high school level as well.

Fifth-grade students are probably a little young to grasp the scientific concepts the lesson draws on.

That doesn't mean Hill's fifth-graders are science-deprived. In the spring, the students will take the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, so Hill teaches science every day as she prepares them for that moment.

"I'm doing what I can to make my students engaged and excited about science," she said.

She hopes to squeeze in some scientific field trips, although school budget cuts forced cancellation of a recent excursion.

"I'm all about hands-on science," Hill said.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218.

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