Second-grader, and budding Egyptologist, Gerhardt Hinkle displays his handmade replica pyramid-building tools--a square level and boning rod--during an open house event at the Phelps Center for the Gifted, located in Springfield, Mo. Hinkle, who spends one school day a week at Phelps, received some guidance on the project for his Ancient Egypt major unit of study from Jackie Williamson, a graduate student in the Near Eastern Studies Department at Hopkins.

The Springfield-Baltimore connection originated after Hinkle visited the Hopkins department's Egypt Today Web site, which chronicled the daily discoveries of a university-coordinated archaeological endeavor in Luxor, Egypt, in January. Specifically, Hinkle e-mailed Macie Hall, senior information technology specialist and the Web site's designer, to learn what materials the tools were made out of for his report on pyramid building. Hall put the gifted youth in contact with Williamson, who sent him a detailed answer to his questions and recommended several books on the subject.

Researching tools of ancient Egypt took second-grader Gerhardt Hinkle to Hopkins' Egypt Today Web site, and he soon found himself corresponding with a grad student in the Near Eastern Studies Department. He sent this photo of his finished project to say thanks.