The emails to WashU environmental archaeologist Ilaria Patania and her colleagues in the Department of Anthropology started immediately.
In August, global robotics competition First Lego League challenged children to design a robot to help archaeologists. The task would demand skills in engineering, design and technology. But, first and foremost, teams needed a fundamental understanding of the discipline itself — what archaeologists do, where they work, what tools they use.
Enter Patania, an assistant professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences and an expert in both land and underwater archaeology. She’s not sure how First Lego League teams found her (“We Googled ‘archaeology and caves’ and Dr. Patania’s name popped up,” explained one fourth grader), but she responded to every query.
“Archaeology isn’t a career a lot of parents are encouraging their sons and daughters to pursue, so when students come to me interested in learning more, I’m always going to say yes,” Patania said.
For teams based in the St. Louis region, Patania went one step further, inviting them to campus, leading them on a mock dig, providing feedback on their designs and connecting them to fellow faculty members and students. Last month, she invited the teams to present their designs and share their competition experiences at Friday Archaeology, a public showcase hosted by the department.