Curated OER
Archaeological Study
Students analyze the difference between archaeology and anthropology while studying the evolution of different products. In this archaeology and anthropology lesson, students trace the progression of a certain tool or product and come up...
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Artifact Puzzles
Students role-play the position of archaeologists to determine the different types of artifacts. They cut out a drawing of their object and connect them with their classmates objects. They write an essay about their object and where it...
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Mystery of the Maya
Students examine a piece of pottery and make conclusions about the culture. They demonstrate the skills used in digging at a dig site. They also make inferences about the responsibility archaeologists have when excavating a site.
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Scientific Inquiry
Middle schoolers make inferences about what activities occur at different places in school. They form a hypothesis as to how space is used. They simulate how archeaologists explore past people by designing and conducting a research project.
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What Can We Learn From the Past?
Students observe items from their past, making inferences and observations about their own culture based on these artifacts. Students then share with the class what they learned about their own culture, giving all students more...
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It's in the Garbage
Students analyze how studying garbage relates to methods of archaeology. They examine garbage to determine things about their culture and relate that to prehistoric peoples.
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Tall Tales: Reconstructing A Personal Tell
Sixth graders discover the ways archaeologists examine artifacts and where they are found. After being introduced to new vocabulary, they use artifacts from their own lives and discover what could be told about their life from them. ...
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It's All In The Rocks
Students think critically to determine fact or inference when examining sedimentary layers with embedded fossils. Geology and evolutionary biology are introduced. They individually write a story about various diagrams and share their...
Ocean Explorer
Looking for Clues
Upper graders become "shipwreck detectives" by studying the debris field from a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea which took place in the 700s. A website is accessed that gives specific information about the debris field, and pairs of...
Channel Islands Film
Cache: Lesson Plan 4 - Grades 4-5
After viewing the West of the West's documentary Cache, individuals craft either a newspaper article chronicling the discovery of the cache on San Nicolas Island, a historical narrative of the placement of the cache in the cliff side, or...
Curated OER
Where is it?
Young scholars use a coordinate grid. They investigate and discuss what caused certain objects to be in specific places. They choose a room in their home to map and place objects in specific locations.
Curated OER
Ping!
Seventh graders study side-scan sonar and discover how it can be used to locate objects underwater. They complete a sonar simulation activity in which they create and map mystery landscapes inside shoeboxes.
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Crossroads of the Continent: Early Trade in Kansas
Students study early Native American-European trade. They play bartering games to discover trade as an economic funtion, as well as other implications of trading one good for another.
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Do You Have A Sinking Feeling?
Students plot the positions of vessels given bearings in the form of landmarks. They explain how the debris field can help solve the mystery in how the ship sunk.
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Take Only Photos and Leave Only Bubbles
Students make careful observations and record their observations. They communicate their findings with their peers and analyze data collected about a site. They determine what it means to be a looter, and feel the direct effects of...
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Mystery Cemetary: Teachers
Students examine and analyze the skeletons of various bodies that could represent a cemetary. In groups, they identify a set of common characteristics in which the skeletons are grouped. To end the activity, they answer questions...
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We Arrived 10,000 Years Ago...
Students explain ways that humans migrated from Asia and settle in the Americas. In this investigative lesson plan students participate in a brief archaeological demonstration and review what they learned.
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Ancient Cultures
Students develop archeological skills in order to explain how scientists determine what ancient cultures were like. They develop an appreciation of the work that is involved in finding out about our past.
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"Adding It Up" at James Fort
Students discuss jettons and their archaeological importance at Jamestown. They then practice using historic counting sheets and artifacts to understand the calculating methods of the early 17th Century, and identify their similarities...
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Medieval Travelers
Tenth graders explore the impact of trade on culture. In this trade lesson, 10th graders compare the travels of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta. Students research the explorers and create materials for a gallery walk that feature the impact...
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The Battle of Stones River: The Soldiers' Story
Learners organize items in a "doohickey kit" distributed by the teachers, creating categories using classification schemes. In this classification instructional activity, students compare systems within groups and write questions that...
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A Museum as Time Capsule
Students focus on museum artwork and artifacts as resources to study history and geography.
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Rock Art
Students create replica symbols of rock are found in Wisconsin and work cooperatively to create a rock art panel. They observe rock art to find their meanings and reasons why they were created.
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Stratigraphy -- Layers of Time in the Earth
Learners are introduced to the process of stratification. Using the internet, they read about the Richard Beene archeological site near San Antonio. Using a map, they color code the different layers present at this site and answer...