AnthroNotes Volume 24 No. 1 Spring 2003
Teacher's Corner: Archaeology for the ClassroombyPamelaAshmoreand TimothyBaumannThe Center for Human Origin and CulturalDiversity (CHOCD) at the University ofMissouri, St. Louis, represents a model col-laboration between a college of arts and sciences anda college of education. Faculty, graduate students,and undergraduate students from the Division ofTeaching and Learning and the Anthropology De-partment worked together to develop a program thatuses state-of-the-art pedagogy to bring anthropologi-cal content to the K-12 classroom. The specific pro-gram described here focuses on archaeological con-tent and activities in the pre-collegiate classroom.Program RationaleTeachers working at all grade levels, but especiallythose working with middle and high school students,have expressed the need to find interesting and inno-vative approaches to inspire and maintain studentinterest in math and science. It seemed probable tous that ifwe could get archaeology-based content intothe classroom that students would be more readilyengaged and interested in pursuing math and science-based activities. The National Science Education Stan-dards for content in grades 5-8 stress the need to "thinkcritically and logically to make the relationships be-tween evidence and explanations" (National ResourceCouncil, 1996, p. 145). The recommendations of theMissouri K-16 Coalition underscore that "middleschool mathematics teachers should be provided withongoing professional development that will help themmove from teaching mathematics as 'calculation' toincorporating more higher order mathematical rea-soning and algebraic thinking into the classroom"(Missouri K-16 Coalition, 1999, p. 10). Archaeologyhas the potential to address both of these educationalgoals. The holistic nature of archaeological investiga-tion lends itself well across the content area and to ateam teaching approach for a particular grade level.
The Field SchoolDuring the summers of 2000 and 2001, the CHOCDimplemented an archaeological field school specifi-cally designed for teachers. Funding for these pro-grams was obtained through grants from theEisenhower Professional Development Program ofthe Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Educa-tion. The underlying philosophy of the grant pro-posals was as follows: by providing teachers with first-hand experience in scientific research, including ex-cavation methods and laboratory procedures, and bymodeling effective teaching strategies, the teacherscould more effectively translate and infuse archaeol-ogy-based content into their classroom teaching. Toensure enrollment in the programs, we establishedpartnerships with specific local school districts. De-cisions about which school districts to approach werebased on several factors. We identified 1) schools thathad requested Timothy Baumann as a guest lecturerfor the classroom, 2) districts that had poor test scoresin the areas of math and science, and 3) teachers fromprevious associations who had demonstrated a will-ingness to try new approaches. The grant coveredprogram expenses for the teachers who received threegraduate credit hours once the program had been suc-cessfully completed. The teachers paid a nominal reg-istration fee if they desired the credit hours.The field school program schedule was as fol-lows: a day-long orientation held at the universitybefore the end of the academic year; and two weeksof field work in July, held five days a week, eight
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hours a day. Two weeks after the field school, theteachers handed in their preliminary lesson plans.During the orientation, we introduced teachers to thefield of archaeology, presented an overview of thesites where the excavations would be conducted, ad-dressed teachers' needs and concerns regarding theirparticipation in the program, and defined programrequirements. Meetings with the teachers were heldthroughout the following academic year and the par-ticipants were required to implement an archaeology-based lesson plan in their classroom to be observedby either Baumann or Ashmore. To reduce the de-mands placed on the teachers conducting this lessonplan, we offered as much assistance as possible.During the summer 2000 and 2001 fieldschools, teachers were exposed to both historic (Ar-row Rock) and prehistoric archaeology (CahokiaMounds), respectively. When housed at Arrow Rock,we spent three days at Cahokia and when housed atCahokia, we spent three days at Arrow Rock.Throughout the field schools, we conducted a seriesof late afternoon workshops, demonstrating variousways archaeological content can be incorporated intoclassroom teaching.Arrow RockThe summer 2000 field school took place at ArrowRock, Missouri, a bustling river town community inthe 1880s where Conestoga wagons set forth on theSanta Fe Trail. The town had a significant AfricanAmerican community, and our goal was to identifythe contributions and activities of the members ofthis community.Teachers were exposed to a variety of archaeo-logical sampling procedures and excavation techniquesat two different sites—the site of an EmancipationDay picnic located alongside an old speakeasy andthe grounds of the early twentieth century AfricanAmerican school house. Teachers learned how towork with a transit, how to establish a sampling gridto conduct post hole testing, how to excavate units,and how to keep records. Teachers also spent time inthe lab washing, sorting, and re-bagging artifacts andfloral and faunal remains, conducting preliminary in-ventories, and processing flotation samples. An addedfeature of the field school program was the opportu-
nity for the teachers to work alongside college stu-dents who had enrolled in the Department ofAnthropology's summer archaeology field schoolprogram.At Arrow Rock, we combined teachers fromthe Greater St. Louis urban area with those who workin rural school districts. This allowed for the addi-tional sharing of teaching strategies and challenges.Teachers were strongly encouraged to develop a pho-tographic record of all aspects of the archaeologicalexcavation in such formats as bulletin boards,overheads, slides, pictures, posters, or materials forpower point presentations for the classroom. Whatmost impressed and surprised the teachers about theexcavation process were the extent of required notes,the diversity of record keeping forms, and the repeti-tion of the identification of location.CahokiaMoundsThe 2001 field school was housed at Cahokia MoundsState Historic Site in Illinois, the largest prehistoricsite north of Mexico. In this field season we werelooking for evidence of the western wall of a largefortification fence or palisade that was built and re-built at least four times, circa A.D. 1175-1275. Exca-vations focused on the identification of wall trenches,post holes and bastions.ArchaeologyLesson PlansThe efforts of 34 teachers over the last two years hasresulted in the production of 68 lesson plans that rangeacross the various content areas and encompass grades2-12, including special education students. Archaeo-logical content was introduced within the followingcontent areas: math, science (biology and earth sci-ence), social studies, communication arts, and art. Foreach year's project, a Resource Activity Book wasassembled and distributed to all participants. Thesebooks contain complete instructional materialsneeded to implement any of the lesson plans. Half ofthe lesson plans have been field-tested in classroomsituations, and any revisions made are included in thefinal format of these plans. All lesson plans are linkedto either the Missouri Show-Me Knowledge and Per-formance Standards, or the Illinois Learning Stan-dards. Two lesson plans are described below.
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Observations andRecommendationsBased on saident comments, assessments of studentperformance, and observations by project staff, theteachers" lesson plans have been well received in theclassroom. Saident comments indicate that they findthe content interesting and the activities fun. We toohave observed the obvious engagement and invest-ment of students in the various activities. Lesson planquiz scores are high and teachers acknowledge thatthe students are learning the content. However, theteachers have also voiced concerns regarding the timeconstraints under which they must operate to con-duct oftentimes highly involved hands-on activitiesin their classrooms. They also describe the difficul-ties in either having their efforts not totally supportedby their administrators or, most commonly, that theydo not have time to teach anything not specificallycovered in either state or national standardized as-sessments.Although we acknowledge the reality of theenvironments in which teachers work and the valid-ity of their concerns regarding implementation, weassure teachers they are teaching more than content.Implicit in the methodologies associated with archae-ology is the promotion of critical thinking skills.Archaeology-based content can successfully promotecritical thinking skills that we believe will improvethe performance of students on standardized exams.Based on the results of these two programs, it is ourobservation that, in addition to increasing knowledgeof past events, archaeology-based content successfullyenhances math and science literacy in the K-12 class-room.
Objectives: Students will work in teams to distin-guish different ceramic types, calculate diameter, in-ventory pieces, reconstruct vessels, assess function,and draw their ceramic artifact.
Materials needed:Black markers, white glue, plain paper, lined paper,colored pencils, regular pencils, copies of diameterchart, straight rulers.Terra cotta flower pots of various colorsStoneware cups of various colors(Each cup or tena cotta pot should be a different colorand the number of items needed is dependent on thenumber of groups).
Setup:Prior to class, the teacher carefully breaks the ceramicitems (make sure the pieces are not too small or toosharp) and mixes the sherds together in a box.
1. Introduce the idea that many artifacts are oftenfound in pieces and archaeologists need to put themback together (reconstruct) in the lab. Pieces of pot-tery, called sherds, are common from both historicand prehistoric sites. Ask students: Why do you thinkthat things like pots are often found in pieces? Usinggeometric relationships, archaeologists are sometimesable to reconstruct pots from pieces (even if somepieces are missing) to determine the original size andshape of a vessel. It is almost like putting togetherthe pieces of a jigsaw puzzle! Ceramic pots are madeup of several sections.
Vessel PartsCLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Reconstructing Pots Activity (grade 6)Show Me Standards M2, FA1
Goals: Students will calculate the diameter of a ce-ramic artifact and model the process of reconstruc-tion.
(NECK
"1(SHOULDER I BODY
.IT PEDESTAL
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Diameter Chart25% 30%
(Use the diagram on the previous page to draw theillustration of a vessel on a board or use as an over-head). The top of the vessel is called the rim, underthe rim is the neck, under it the shoulder, and thebody of the pot sits on the base. The base may be inthe form of a pedestal (a platform that the pot sitson). If the students have just a rim piece, they can usea diameter chart (above) to figure out from the sizeof the curve of the rim piece how big the vessel open-ing was. From the chart, students also can estimatethe percentage of the entire rim that their piece rep-resents. They are now going to work to reconstruct apot that will be assigned to their group. They willhave to work together to identify the elements of thepot just identified and then use a diameter chart tocalculate the diameter of the top (rim) of the pot. Thediameter chart can be put on an overhead projector.
2. Divide students into archaeological teams of threestudents each.
3. Assign a particular terra cotta pot or stonewarecup (i.e. Stoneware Blue) and letter to each team.
4. Have each team retrieve the appropriate pieces oftheir pot or cup from the box.
5. Using black markers, ask students to label the pieceswith their assigned letter plus a sequential number.
For example, the group assigned letter A will num-ber their pieces A-l, A-2. .
.
6. Students should sort pieces by rim, base, and body.
7. Next, have saidents inventory their ceramic piecesand list them on the inventory sheet.
8. Using the diameter chart, have each student calcu-late the diameter of their vessel using three differentrim pieces (either the inside or outside of the curve ofthe rim piece should be matched to a curve on thediameter chart). Also have each student determinethe % of the vessel their rim piece represents as indi-cated by the diameter chart.
NOTE: A diameter chart can be made by using aprotractor and drawing concentric circles 1 cc apart.If a half circle is used, as is shown in this diagram,then the calculation is based on the radius of the open-ing to calculate the diameter, the value of the radiushas to be doubled. Diameter gauges can be orderedfrom www.archaeogear.com
9. Have the students reconstruct their vessel usingwhite glue.
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Inventory Sheet
Number ofPieces
SherdsHandles
Bases
List each rimSeparately Diameter (rim) % of Vessel (rim)
Rim 1 1Rim 2 1Rim 3 1Rim 4 1
10. Have each student draw their reconstructed ves-sel and write a description of it. This should includecolor, mention of any design elements, and measure-ments of its size (height and diameter of top). Stu-dents can then write a story that describes what theirpot was used for (its function).
Objectives: Students will work in archaeological unitsto map the location of artifacts located within an ex-cavation unit. Students will make assessments as tothe type of activity that might have occurred in theirunit.
Materials Needed:Yardsticks, masking tape, photocopies of pictures ofartifacts, graph paper, rulers, pencils, and copies of aworksheet.
Excavation ofRoom (Grade 7)Show Me Standards MA2, SS7
Goals: Students will properly measure and grid arti-facts in a unit. Based on the kinds of artifacts andtheir patterning in a unit students will interpret hu-man behaviors.
Set up:Before class, mark the classroom floor with maskingtape in rectangular units of 2'x3\ one unit for eachgroup of students. Inside these units tape pictures ofartifacts (flakes, projectile points, ceramic sherds,worked shells, and/or bones). Pictures of artifacts canbe easily found in issues of National Geographicmaga-zine. Try to select artifacts from a particular culturei.e. Navajo of the Southwest and also try to create apattern with the artifacts, such as flakes in the samesection as stone tools. (continuedon nextpage)
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1. Explain to the students that artifacts can be prettyto look at (have pictures to show), but that we reallyneed to know about the physical distribution (loca-tion) of artifacts in time and space. When archaeolo-gists find artifacts, they need to know precisely wherein the excavation unit the artifacts are located. Askthe students to think about a police detective who istrying to solve a robbery case. The detective needsto look for clues at the crime scene and needs to seewhere everything was when the crime was commit-ted. These clues might enable the detective to findthe evidence needed to solve who committed thecrime and when.
Archaeologists attempt to figure out how people ofthe past used a particular place. What activities didthey engage in? How did they live their lives? Theevidence for this is, in part, to be found in the arti-facts that have been left behind. The types of arti-facts and the pattern ofhow they are laid out in spacewill help archaeologists to determine what types ofactivities occurred in specific locations. Archaeolo-gists have to be able to recreate on a piece of paper inthe lab where all of the artifacts in their excavationunit were found. Show students on the board or over-head how to measure the location of an artifact in aunit.
NOTE: To gauge (measure) an artifact in your ar-chaeological unit, measure from the edge of the unitto the artifact. Measure the distance from the north-ern edge of the unit to the closest edge of the artifact.On the graph paper make a mark where that distancewould be. Next measure from the eastern edge ofthe unit to the closest edge of the artifact and make amark on the graph paper where that would be. Con-tinue until you have a mark for all sides of the arti-fact. Finally look at the artifact and draw within yourmarks the shape of the artifact. See diagram below.
2. Explain to the students that their classroom hasbeen turned into an archaeological excavation. Stu-dents will work in groups of two to four.
3. Each group will identify the northern "wall" oftheir unit. Using rulers, students will measure the unitand the location of the artifacts and draw them ontheir graph paper. One inch will represent one square.
4. Students will label each artifact on their graph pa-per.
5. Finally, they will write the names of their groupmembers and answer the following questions on theirworksheet:Room Excavation
North
West
• tb
East
South
i
: |
;
1 . What kind of artifacts did you find in your unit?What did you notice about the locations of the arti-facts in your unit? Are they spread out or are they alltogether?
2. What do you think the artifacts were used for?What kind of activity do you think went on in yourunit? Why do you think this?
{continued onpage 18)
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(Teacher's Corner, continuedfrompage 14)
Further Reading
Amarento, Beverly J. et al. 1997. A Message ofAn-
cient Days. Houghton Mifflin.
Joukowsky, Martha. 1980. A CompleteManual ofField
Archaeology: Tools and Techniques ofField Workfor
Archaeologists. Prentice Hall.
U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land
Management. 1996. Intrigue ofthe Past: A Teacher's
Activity Guidefor Fourth through Seventh Grades.
Bureau of Land Management.
PamelaAshmore is an assistantprofessorofanthropol-
ogy and education and associate directorofCHOCD,
Center for Human Origin and Cultural Diversity
(CHOCD), at the University ofMissouri, St. Louis.
TimothyBaumann isan assistantprofessor ofanthro-
pology at the University ofMissouri, St. Louis.
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