PBS
Document This
Being a historian requires serious sleuthing. They examine primary source documents and look for evidence, for clues that reveal who wrote the document, when, and why. After watching two historians model the process, young history...
Curated OER
Gridding An Archaeological Site
Students investigate using some of the basic skills of an archaeologist while using a Cartesian coordinate system. They establish a grid system for a dig site and determine the locations for different artifacts. Students use the...
Curated OER
Site Formation In Archaeology
Students look at the findings of a Hopi Indian dig site in order to reconstruct the sequence of events that occurred in the past. They examine the stratigraphy while making multiple hypothesis about the artifacts and their locations at...
Curated OER
Interpreting An Archaelogical Site
Young scholars study the site of an archaeological dig site in order to begin looking at how they can be interpreted. They look at a soil profile and respond to a research question that simulates a real site. The other questions are used...
Curated OER
Protecting the Past: Give a Hoot, Don't Loot!
Students, in small groups, simulate an ancient civilization and the art they created, another group represents vandals, and the final group represents archaeologists who try to figure out what life was like for the "ancient peoples". ...
Curated OER
Jamestown
Seventh graders examine life at the Jamestown settlement. In this colonial America lesson, 7th graders visit the noted Web site to analyze artifacts from the settlement. Based on their findings, students write descriptive pieces about...
Curated OER
Remains of the Day
Students consider how archaeologists discovered and pieced together artifacts that indicate a Celtic presence in ancient Turkey. They research ancient civilizations and create archaeological digs containing items representative of these...
Curated OER
Texas Treasures
Students explore the meanings of the word "treasure," and examine the use of clay in the construction of buildings in San Antonio, Texas. They examine clay artifacts, and watch a video about pottery artist, Harding Black. Students then...
Channel Islands Film
Cache: Lesson Plan 3 - Grades 4-5
Should the excavation of what is believed to be the cave of the Lone Woman of San Nicholas Island be allowed to continue? As a practice exercise designed to prepare pupils for a timed writing exam, individuals read two Los Angeles...
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Lesson 3: What Makes Attitudes Towards Education Change over Time?
The struggle for women's rights is not unique to this generation, or even to the 20th century. Class members explore the conflicting opinions of Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, regarding women's pursuits of higher...
American Museum of Natural History
What is Anthropology
A colorful resource introduces learners to the four major fields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. Explanations are provided for what each field studies, the kinds...
Curated OER
Site Robbers
Fourth graders interview a Native American and write a newspaper article or letter that expresses concern about robbing archaeological sites.
Curated OER
Four Ancient River Civilizations
Students explore how the environment shapes man, how man transformed his world, nd how art became part of the human process. The group is divided into clans and their migratory routes developed in the eight lessons of this unit.
Curated OER
LESSON PLANS (print version) pdf What is a Fossil?
Students can better explain how mould and cast fossils occur when they make their own cast fossils using plaster of Paris and objects such as shells, bone or even their own hand or footprint.
Curated OER
The Vikings: Woodquay, Dublin
Middle schoolers view the progamme that leads them through the process of researching an historical site. They are given the deifinition of an archaeologist. Students watch as two ten year olds are given the task of finding out as much...
Curated OER
Digging Deeper: Mission San Sabá
Seventh graders view a painting of the destruction of Mission San Saba in Texas. They discuss the painting and identify information that they can infer from the painting.
Curated OER
Jamestown Fort: Finding History
Students identify artifacts discovered from the exploration of the Jamestown fort in order to help them create a short fictional account about the lives of Jamestown's first inhabitants. In this history lesson, students research the...
Curated OER
Inference Makes the Difference
Students explore how archaeologists make inferences from artifacts to explore what life was like in the past. In this archaeology lesson, students work in groups and make inferences about an imaginary household based on modern day...
Curated OER
Lesson Design Archaeology
Students participate in their own excavation and measure and record as they go. In this archaeology lesson students divide into groups and solve the mystery of what they uncovered in their dig box.
Curated OER
Mapping with a Compass: A Simulated Survey
Students use compasses and grids to map the locations of artifacts found in a simulated dig site. In groups, they role-play as future archeologists excavating a school site. Groups begin at their assigned datum and site the artifacts...
Curated OER
Lesson plan: Archaeology - Its Methods and Use
Students study the field of archeology. In this archeology lesson, students participate in 12 activities that require them to examine archeology, garbology, artifacts, ethical issues, and field specific vocabulary.
Curated OER
The Treaty Trail: U.S. Indian Treaty Councils in the Northwest
Middle schoolers create a timeline with the major events of the 19th and 20th century dealing with Native Americans. They examine artifacts and discuss how they reflect culture. They also identify trade routes the Native Americans used.
Curated OER
Primary Sources and Archaeology in the Study of Ancient Mediterranean Trade
Tenth graders begin the lesson by plotting trade routes, major empires and items traded. Using primary sources, they examine their own values regarding trading items for royality. They participate in a role-play exercise in which they...
Curated OER
Protecting the Past: Give a Hoot, Don't Loot
Young scholars discuss the looting and vandalism of various archeological sites. In pairs, they read and complete a worksheet and review their answers as a class. In groups, they role play a artifact preservation skit and perform it to...