While carrying out our mission to provide community outreach, we have developed many topical lessons for use across many ages and skill levels. Listed below are some of the lessons we have developed. If you would like to share your own we will include it on the site. For books about archaeology for students, see a comprehensive list at http://www.archaeologyincommunity.com/youth-reading-list/.
Mock Excavations
Students will practice excavation, note-taking skills, and analysis of artifacts and features in stratified soils at a simulated site.
Stratigraphy and the Laws of Superposition
Instructor will relate the principals and mechanics of sediment deposition, site dating techniques, the correlation between time and soil levels, and possible site/soil disturbance. In groups of 3 to 5, students will use soil "keys" to match a known date and soil context to soils on the poster. The keys provide a date to apply to different features on the poster. Students will take this information and the concepts learned from the discussion to complete the worksheet.
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Afterschool Archaeology Program
In 2020, the National Science Foundation announced that members from the Public Archaeology Facility (PAF), Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership (TLEL), and the Binghamton University Community Schools (BUCS) at Binghamton University received a two-year grant through NSF’s Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Pilot & Feasibility Program. The team is implementing an afterschool program for middle school students (Grades 6-8) from underserved rural areas. The team is using archaeology as a mechanism to teach the STEM fields of biology, physics, mathematics, and ecology, all disciplines employed daily by archaeologists.
