Roving History Exhibit Offers Lessons Students Can Dig Into

EARTHMOBILE: Students at 15th Street Elementary School in San Pedro became archeologists for an hour Wednesday in a make-believe canyon complete with stuffed raccoons, California quail, skunks, desert weeds and Native American artifacts.

The canyon was inside a 48-foot air-conditioned tractor-trailer called the “Earthmobile,” which visited the school as part of a natural history program sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.

Jill Urstein, an instructor from the museum, told the 21 students that the canyon was once populated by Chumash Indians. She also explained the painted symbols depicting wildlife and other Indians along the canyon walls.

The students worked in groups of three inside the trailer. One student did the digging in a small sandy gravel pit, using a small plastic scooper. Another identified the artifacts recovered using a reference book provided by the museum, while another student recorded the results.

Students found human bones, fish vertebrae, and a few arrowheads. After the dig, Urstein told the students that since the artifacts were well preserved, they were easy to identify.

But in reality, archeologists’ work is more difficult because objects are often decayed. In addition, trash dumped in canyons can make the work harder.

Urstein encouraged the students to help protect the environment by recycling paper and cans to eliminate some of the clutter that may confuse future archeologists.

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WEST SCORES: A group of recent graduates and a senior from West Torrance High School were recognized by the College Board for their exceptional performances on the college-level advanced placement examinations.

The College Board reported that only 11% of the 424,000 students nationwide who took the examinations in May scored high enough to earn the recognition.

Nikhil Chanani and Peter Kim, both now attending Stanford University, and Jason Lee, a UC Berkeley student, qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award for earning grades of three or above on five or more of the exams.

Students who earned grades of three or above on four or more examinations qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award. The students were Roger Han, now at Stanford, Edward Chow, a student at Cornell University and West High senior Evan Hurowitz.

Five graduates were named AP Scholars by completing three or more exams with a grade of three or higher. They are Joyce Chen, a Stanford student; Hyung Kim, now at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Christina Smolke of USC; UC Berkeley student Benjamin Kang and Jeffrey Wu, now attending UC San Diego.

The exams, which high school seniors take after completing college-level courses, are graded on a five-point scale. Most students take one test, choosing among several subjects, such as chemistry, calculus, U.S. history or a foreign language. The advanced placement courses can be applied toward college credit at most universities.

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SCHOOL DEDICATION: Former Torrance Unified School District Supt. Edward Richardson was honored at a ceremony this week dedicating Richardson Middle School, named after him.

The school opened in September with an enrollment of 200 sixth-graders. Seventh-graders will enroll next year and eighth-graders in 1995.

Richardson began his career in Torrance Unified as a teacher at Seaside Elementary in 1958. He served as the district’s superintendent from 1978 until his retirement this year.

The school, originally named Newton Middle School, opened in 1955. It was closed in 1986 because of declining enrollment. The following year, the Newton Adult Education school began holding classes on the site, and will share the campus with Richardson’s students until 1995.

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff writer Carol Chastang.