(upbeat music) - [Tom] This week on Arizona Illustrated, a lizard loving PhD known as Afro Herper - What is that, what?

And then it moved and I was like, oh, that is lizard.

- [Tom] Two restaurants keep serving one meal at a time.

- [Kelli] Even if we take a loss right now, it is worth it to ensure that we are still here.

- [Tom] And school in the time of COVID-19.

- [Adrienne] If anybody could handle it, it's Gen Z.

They're some of the most innovated hopeful groups of students I've met.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We're here on the edge of the Menlo park neighborhood along the banks of the Santa Cruz river which by the way now flows through this stretch West of downtown thanks to the Santa Cruz River Heritage Project that introduces safe, treated wastewater into the river from the base of a mountain.

And the AZPM crew and I continue to take precautionary measures like wearing masks when and where appropriate and keeping a safe distance as the Corona virus numbers continue to rise.

Here's an update.

Arizona continues to face the worst COVID infection rate in the country and continues to set records for new cases, deaths, test results and testing positivity.

Over the past week, over 69,000 more Arizonans have been vaccinated.

This rate is expected to rise as a 24 hour mass vaccination facility is now open in Glendale and similar centers are scheduled to open in Pima County and throughout the state.

For more coronavirus information, visit news.azpm.org.

The subject in the following story is a PhD candidate researching the impact of drying climate on lizard populations.

Also runs a popular social media game called Find That Lizard and is dedicated to showing the world that not all scientists are old white men in Tweed jackets with the elbow patch.

This is Earyn McGee.

- No, don't you run from me.

Don't you run from you lizard.

I always knew I wanted to work with animals.

And when I was an undergraduate at Howard university there was one snail guy and the fish guy but then there was only like one animal person and he was working with lizards.

And so I was like, whoa, lizards it is.

So these are one of my favorite lizard species if not my favorite, they're so beautiful.

And they were actually the first species that I ever had a chance to work with.

Lizards we're on the same schedule they're out around eight which means I don't have to wake up until like seven, perfect.

We just ended up meshing together, we work.

Hi, I'm Earyn McGee, AKA Afro Herper.

I'm a PhD student at the university of Arizona studying natural resources.

I'm interested in lizards and their diets.

I wanna know what they're eating.

Right behind me is the first friend of the day, a little tiny, itty bitty it's like this big side botched lizard.

(upbeat music) I'm also interested in increasing the representation of black women in natural resources.

So understanding barriers preventing entry and preventing retention of black women in these careers.

There are just so many of these tiny babies out that's why you really have to kind of look where you're going to see a wildlife because they're everywhere.

Look at them.

And just the cutie.

Can you find that lizard?

Do you see it?

Do y'all see what I'm seeing, how cute, just the cutest.

Find That Lizard is a game that I post on social media so Twitter and Instagram, and I post a picture of a lizard camouflage in its natural environment.

And with the photo, there are some facts about the lizards and most of the time those facts are clues as to where to look in the photo for the lizard.

And people have about four hours to find the lizard in the photo.

If I asked you what do lizards eat?

You'd probably be like insects and you'd be right.

But like, where do those insects come from?

But for the most part we don't know.

(upbeat music) So I wanted to know, are the lizards eating insects that are completely terrestrial?

Are they eating aquatic insects so insects that spend their larval stage in water and then emerge into the terrestrial landscape and then potentially becoming food for other species bats, birds and then of course lizards because no one has really looked at that.

And then here in the Southwest where we're experiencing a lot of drought a lot of stream drying.

If there's no place for these insects to lay their eggs and live out the first part of their life stage they can never become adults and enter the terrestrial world, which means that the lizards might not have enough food to eat.

People think of lizards and they think of desert, they think of creatures that can survive extreme temperatures, and that's all true.

But even with lizards, they have a heat threshold.

So if it gets too hot and they're not able to properly bring their body temperatures back down they're gonna overheat and die.

So you will see like lizard populations moving up and up in elevation, which means that species are getting pushed off the top of the mountain because they have nowhere else to go.

(instrumental music) As a kid, I was the weirdo in the family.

I was like very into my books.

I was just like, well, don't talk to me I'm going to my room, closing the door and I'm reading this book and I'm reading it until tomorrow so please do not disturb.

(instrumental music) When I was growing up I never thought that I could be a scientist in the way that I am now, like when you think of a scientist, you kinda think of... like, I would think of like an old white man in like the Tweed jacket with elbow patches and like a white lab coat but there's so many different definitions to what a scientist is and what a scientist can look like in the type of science that a scientist does.

And so I kinda wanna open the doors to like show there are so many possibilities besides what we're just shown in TV because it's not really representative to the reality of what a scientist is or looks like.

I brought with me today my prop lizard so that I can show you guys how I lasso lizard.

So a lasso consists of fishing pole or some kind of stick that you can hang a line off of and at the end of the line there is a slipknot and the slipknot is what you want to get over the lizard's head.

Think of like, if there was a hybrid sport between like lassoing cows and going fishing.

I extend the lasso out as much as I need it to be and then I try to get the lasso over the lizards head.

It can be a bit challenging because the further way the line gets from you the harder it becomes to see.

But then once it's over the head, I have a lizard.

And then once you catch it you always wanna give it some support.

You don't wanna let it just dangle.

Y'all right behind me, right there there's a lizard.

I promise you there's a lizard on the tree.

I was skeptical at first myself I was walking and I was like what is that?

It looks like a little piece off of the branch but it looks kind of weird.

What is that?

And then it moved and I was like, oh, that is a lizard.

And I was like, okay I need to get a picture for everybody for Find That Lizard.

Oh yeah, that's what I like to see, lizards.

When I went to Howard my freshman year I had no idea that people like, like study lizards.

I just thought that all of those kinds of questions were like answered.

I was like, there, I could go on Google and figure out the answer to this question and nobody else is like interested in this stuff anymore.

My second semester I got into this program called the Environmental Biology Scholars.

So I got to go out and actually be in the colleges and real life.

And that was like my aha moment.

My, oh, this is truly like they not making this up.

This is a real job and I could do it.

I love the work that I do.

And knowing that I have like undergraduate students who have gotten something out of my mentorship and having a really great lab and support system and my family is super supportive.

Those are the things that I can fall back on whenever I'm struggling.

And then when I can get back on my feet then I'll get back on my feet and continue the work.

Ah, such an exciting, happy herping trip.

I got to see a bunch of lizards, two cool species.

It's always great when you see a lizard.

- You can find Earyn McGee on Twitter as @AFRO-_HERPER on each Wednesday she hosts Find That Lizard under the #FINDTHATLIZARD.

The Corona virus pandemic has affected most businesses in Tucson but perhaps none more so than restaurants.

Several local favorites have been forced to close their doors permanently.

And many food service workers have lost their jobs or are just struggling to get by.

Recently we visited two longtime family run establishments to see how they are managing.

(vehicle engine roaring) (calm piano music) - All of our breads are homemade.

I make our own pies, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls.

I cut our own meat here, all the specials are homemade.

(calm piano music) When COVID was first announced and we get shut down for about 10 days where we didn't do anything.

And it was when the city said that we would be able to open up I think like April 1st and it just never happened.

It just kept getting pushed back and pushed back.

So then we decided to just do to goes.

- Got myself patties and we'll deep fry 'em for about three minutes or so.

- People are very grateful for the type of food we make.

- Make sure you saute some real good.

- People tell us you know, this is how my great-grandmother made this.

This is the only place that can get it.

Like I remember it.

We were pretty early on noticing this was a problem.

Mid February we started buying extra takeout things.

Then a week before the mandatory shutdown we closed.

We usually take our vacation in July and we did just said, we're gonna do it now.

We're gonna take five weeks off paid vacation for all our full-time employees.

Mid April we knew that we were gonna have to be takeout only - I had to cut a lot of staff not that they were let go or fired but I only could use one server at a time and then I was the only cook for six or eight weeks.

So it was really long and really tiring for myself but that was the only way that we would have been able to stay afloat during that time.

And then once we were able to open the 50% hours have been cut but all of my staff has been able to return.

Our dishwasher has worked here for 41 years.

We're one of the oldest restaurants in Tucson.

Gus Balon and his wife Kay who are my grandparents opened this in 1965.

And now I've had it for 15 years, but I've grown up here.

Even if you're a single person, you can come in here and you'll have a bunch of people to talk to.

This is a lot of people's social hour.

- This is where people come and celebrate their important milestones you know.

Been in the family since 1978 I think this was my first stop coming home from the hospital after I was born.

- We all grew up here.

I started when I was 11 here and my brother was seven.

We were best boys on the weekend, we grew up here.

And when everything started opening up again there was a lot of restaurants downtown in the Fourth Avenue and they were serving out in the patios and on the sidewalk.

So I called the liquor board and I asked them is it okay if we use our patio we have, can we serve alcohol out there?

So they said, well as long as the patio is attached to the building, it's okay.

You know, we've loosened up on our rules and restrictions because of COVID.

And I stopped running in the mornings anymore because I get more exercise running around here than I would run five miles in the morning.

- [Isamar] We have no idea what days are gonna be busy what days aren't so it's difficult to hire people back for that.

- [Eugene] We multitask and we have to do a lot of more things than you used to do.

- If you're a restaurant owner or anybody in hospitality you have a really high overhead.

Everything has to be paid for, until you sell it you don't get the revenue to pay your vendors.

This time of year, we should be really picking up because the snowbirds should have been coming back in October.

A lot of them haven't, we are definitely down in revenue.

What I would like to see is people to have the option.

You know, let small restaurants open, let restaurants open to their full capacity.

We can still wear a mask, we'll still do the sanitation and everything.

- We do have some customers and people that call in wherever else is open but you know, why aren't you open?

Why is your diners?

Oh, you know, we wanna play it safe and keep everyone safe and healthy.

And so this is what we wanna do.

- These aren't just customers.

These are people my family has known for 50, 60 years.

They went to school together.

We played little league with the kids.

- The weather's nice.

It's open fresh air.

The views are good, we have our hummingbirds out there.

(calm piano music) This is my only job my whole life is pretty much been on all my siblings have all had other jobs or have other jobs then come and help but this has been my main job.

It would be strange to not be here, not doing this.

- Even if we take a loss right now, it is worth it to ensure that we are still here for who knows how many more months but hopefully quite a few more.

- Unfortunately, there've been several restaurants in Tucson that have been institutions who have just decided to close.

And I don't blame them it's been really difficult and it's run through my mind a couple of times.

I think we'll make it through if there's not another completely shutdown.

(piano music) - Last fall the Tucson unified School District planned to open schools with a hybrid of in-person and remote instruction.

But as COVID-19 cases increased that plan was postponed.

Now Basis Charter School in Oro Valley taught a mix of kids in-person and from home last fall.

So we spent time with a few of the kids and their teachers to find out what's working and what isn't.

(tranquil music) (students chattering) - Style of kid that we get at Basis is that kid that is very, very motivated.

The workload here can be rather daunting.

Again, the challenge is that having this hybrid model where half are here and half aren't presents challenges that nobody ever really thought of.

I mean, we're in uncharted territory.

You know, something seems to always go wrong.

Hang on a second Tyler.

- They come from water.

- They're doing the, they come from water.

As much as we try to deliver the same learning experience to kids at home, that are here it can't happen in my mind they're gonna be missing something.

- Yeah, All right.

So I'm just saying, sorry can you say again what (speaking foreign language) means?

- [Student] A year.

- A year, so we say (speaking foreign language) is Latin for- We all have a document so on physically that we can see it projected and online.

We can see here that the other members of the class are watching the same slide.

- [Student] We are required to document the lives of (indistinct) in their day-to-day lives.

- I just wish it was integrated better.

I can't switch back and forth fast enough to see who online if their hands are raised, it makes it difficult for me to kind of manage who I'm talking to in person with online.

(students chattering) - We got back in school in, I believe it was October 12th.

It was awesome because I'm someone who relies on my friends a lot and I will hang out with them and it's a big mental, like just yes (laughing).

And it was weird just not being able to do that every day.

I think probably one of the biggest changes to the school is having to wear masks around and not being able to take them off.

And it's kind of hard to recognize people.

(tranquil music) It's pretty stressful like just not being able to know what's gonna happen today and if your teachers are gonna be in school.

Our Math teacher hasn't been here for a while 'cause he had symptoms I'm guessing.

He hasn't been in for like a week and he wasn't there for the first two weeks of school, of in school that is so that's been kind of weird.

- You wonder at what point, you know keeping up this level of energy, keeping up this level of worry is gonna become unsustainable.

And that's kind of the word that I think of when I think of hybrid learning.

There is no cadre of teachers backed up to support these teachers or to support these kids when they decide that's enough.

And we've already lost quite a few, you know due to the stress of hybrid learning.

And there's nobody there waiting to take that job (laughing) You know, nobody's like, yeah I wanna be a teacher.

And we are gonna do it one more time because the people on the screen didn't get to do it so start, 30 seconds.

I have kids who when you mention that we might be going back into virtual learning completely they just wanna cry.

And then I have kids who are begging for it.

It's frustrating to watch kids that you know are in pain and it could be that school is their social place maybe they're an only child, it could be that they are queer and at home they're not out, but at school they are and they're losing that opportunity to spend their day out and proud.

It could be that maybe nobody is home with them I have a lot of really lonely kids, you know, looking at me through a computer screen because mom and dad are at work and they're just home with a screen all day long.

You know, I know a lot of kids who go from class to nap to class to nap and you don't wanna drop the D word of depression, but that's certainly is what it feels like.

You know, a lot of sleeping to not have to live through things.

And you hate to see that in a 16, 17 year old or 13 14 year old.

- [Teacher] Why do scientists need this does someone have an idea?

Elena.

- Because I have asthma and COVID more than less affects your lungs.

So people with diseases in their lungs and old people will be of a higher chance of being either dead or getting it.

So I've been at home schooling since March.

I desire really to get to go outside much.

Though I'm almost in the house during the entire week.

On the weekends, sometimes I go over to my friend's house, but rarely.

My grades now aren't as good as if I was doing in person because I'm just not understanding it well I'm not getting the idea, it's not being showed to me physically.

With online school, I feel like they're getting us like twice as much homework as they would.

So as soon as I'm done with school, I'm usually studying or doing homework till nine o'clock.

At the beginning, I was on the screen for about 12 hours a day straight and my eyes started getting strained but I'm gonna get glasses for blue light because I don't get overwhelmed but it's very stressful for my eyes and my brain.

(tranquil music) - So I get up at 7:00am and then I set up my computer and I log into the Microsoft teams and I joined the call and prepare for the first class.

So I get out at 12 and then I do homework for about three hours.

And I end up working the night shift at the restaurant.

Grain River Asian bistro, Yi-Jen speaking, how can I help you?

My mom is a high risk individual.

She has both asthma and diabetes.

So we made the decision as a family that I would just stay at home to continue distance learning.

Back in March when we first started I was definitely very stressed and anxious and I was a little worried about how AP tests were going to be before they announced it was going to be online.

And also the fact that I was going to be taking my SAT and ACT retakes.

And I thought back then it was like the determining factor for like college admission so I was very stressed during that period of time.

Online learning and distance learning in general just needs a lot of discipline.

And so I feel that I should just continue like a regular track of graduating and just entering freshman year in the fall.

Because for me, I know myself (laughing) I'm going to end up getting I think either discouraged or distracted and not wanting to continue (laughing).

So I think that it would be best for me to just go ahead and jump into college.

- Kids are inundated today.

I mean, you know they're so connected that I can't think of that many kids that aren't aware of what's going on locally, nationally and globally.

I think it's a really hard time to be a parent.

You know, it really, really is 'cause you wanna make everything better and it's not feasible.

You know, and what I can do for my kids and kids here is provide them with some tools that'll hopefully get them through this and to the other side.

- Closing, but now switching to talk about perception.

This generation is better set.

They are more aware of mental health.

They're more comfortable admitting their anxieties.

So if anybody could handle it, it's Gen Z.

They are some of the most innovated hopeful groups of students I've met.

And I think their own awareness of mental health issues can be translated and carried out to their parents to teachers.

We could all learn from them and their willingness to talk about it.

They still have hope for the future.

We have given them crap and they are completely okay with saying, yeah, this is what it is, but we're gonna make it better.

And so then I start to feel better.

And so just remembering that our youth are our biggest asset by far and they're amazing and taking comfort in that.

- The Oro Valley Basis School is currently delaying the return to in-person learning with a close eye on Corona virus numbers.

All Southern Arizona public school districts including TUST continue to provide on-campus learning spaces for children who need it but have also delayed an in-person hybrid option until the numbers allow for safe in-person instruction.

Both Charter and public schools in Southern Arizona have currently delayed in-person learning with a close eye on Corona virus numbers.

For details regarding specific schools, please check the appropriate school district or charter school website.

Watch Arizona illustrated stories on demand on our website azpm.org/ArizonaIllustrated catch up on past episodes, rewatch your favorites, or even view some stories before they broadcast.

Before we go, here's a sneak peek at a story we're working on.

- And then I remember like standing there watching the balloon fill up with helium and then they released it and then the telescope flew into the air.

It takes a couple of hours to go up to the altitude.

So the balloon is illuminated during the day and it gets pretty hot from just the light of the sun and then at night it will cool off and as it cools off, it shrinks a little bit 'cause the gas inside also cools off.

And I would check every so often and read out what the altitude was and it kept going down and I was like this seems kind of weird, but like I don't know I have too many other things to think about.

And then around nine o'clock the balloon people, so there's a whole separate group of NASA people who just do the balloon launches, and so I call them the balloon people.

The main guy came down from where they were doing their work and he was like we think that there's something wrong but we're not sure.

And then about an hour later they came back and they said we think there's a hole in the balloon.

- Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

See you next week.

(upbeat music)