Close Encounters

Passing Earth Science to the Next Generation

By Claire Cain Miller

Photographs by Genevieve Shiffrar

Richmond High School sophomore wWhen Jessie Alberto was in elementary school, he used to catch insects and inspect them during class, until a teacher would catch him and he’d let them jump, crawl, or fly away.

Jessie Alberto shows off a tiny scorpion he uncovered; Richmond High junior Yoshira Barajas examines a California newt in the field; and UC Berkeley graduate student Ryan Hill (second from right) teaches Jennifer Saechao, Yoshira Barajas, Stephanie Saechao, and Esmeralda Ponce how to pin insect specimens in the lab.

“I’d get grasshoppers and put them on my desk,” he recalls with a mischievous smile. “When the teachers saw them, I would pretend they weren’t mine.”

Now a sophomore at Richmond High School, a tough campus where police officers are always present, Jessie catches and observes grasshoppers and other critters as part of his favorite course. “It’s the only class I’ve ever heard of where you deal with live animals,” he says. He grins and shows off a jar in which a checkered alligator lizard floats upside-down. “Dead ones too.”

Jessie declares that the lizard is a reptile. “Usually reptiles have rougher surfaces and amphibians have smoother, moisturized surfaces because they absorb water,” he explains. He points to a giant salamander with glossy brown skin, an amphibian, in another jar. “See, it’s slimy.”