Project Archaeology: A Great Resource for Teachers!
Project Archaeology: A Great Resource for Teachers!
Hello fellow archaeology and history enthusiasts! It is with
a heavy heart that I announce that the time has come for me to move on to my
next big adventure. I have truly enjoyed working as an FPAN Outreach Assistant in
the East Central Region over the past six months, and I appreciate having had
the opportunity to meet and work with the many wonderful people, parks, schools,
libraries, museums, and groups in East Central Florida who value archaeology and Florida’s
heritage and cultural resources. This August I will officially become a high
school teacher for Orange County Public Schools. Don't worry, you will probably still see me
volunteering for FPAN events and workshops over the next few years though – you
won't be able to get rid of me that easily!
As a brand-new, incoming teacher, I had the unique opportunity to don
two hats for the recent Project Archaeology workshop that FPAN and the Timucuan
Ecological & Historic Preserve hosted at Kingsley Plantation in
Jacksonville this July. To put it simply, I was blown away! I wanted to share
how great of a resource Project Archaeology is to educators.
Project Archaeology's Curriculum Guide for "Investigating Shelter".
To begin, you can learn all about Project Archaeology
Here. To quote their website, Project Archaeology is “an educational
organization dedicated to teaching scientific and historical inquiry, cultural
understanding, and the importance of protecting our nation’s rich cultural
resources…a national network of archaeologists, educators,
and concerned citizens working to make archaeology education accessible to
students and teachers nationwide through high-quality educational materials and
professional development.” This organization is phenomenal and has produced a plethora of versatile, high-quality, and engaging resources for educators.
Ranger Emily gives a site tour to the educators who attended the workshop.
FPAN partnered with
Project Archaeology and the National Parks Service to develop a curriculum to supplement their “Investigating
Shelter” series, and chose to examine Kingsley Plantation at the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (National Parks Service). This curriculum, Project Archaeology: Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin, is
designed for grades 3-5, and it focuses on the complex lives of Anta Majigeen
Ndiaye (Anna Kingsley) and Zephaniah Kingsley and the slaves that lived and
worked at Kingsley Plantation from 1814-1837. The curriculum introduces the
students to archaeology and culture, and then focuses on delving deeper into
what we can learn about slavery in the United States and the lives of the men, women, and children
who lived in the tabby slave cabins at Kingsley Plantation. You can learn all about the curriculum and how it was developed in our blog post here.
A lesson map for the two-day teacher training.
Participants working through an activity from the curriculum
The Project Archaeology Teacher Training Workshop is an annual free two-day event for educators that takes place at the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida. Teachers were provided with a curriculum guide, a workbook, and online access to the Project Archaeology curriculum as well as training on how to implement the curriculum and activities in a classroom.
Participants work with a "replica" of an excavated tabby slave cabin, taking note of where each artifact was recovered. The placement of these artifacts, or "context", provides invaluable information on how these items were used.
This curriculum could be applied to lessons in social studies, science, math, or art. The lessons were incredibly engaging, and provoked many higher-order thinking questions and discussions. I am extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the workshop, and I was surprised to see that such a great resource was available to educators - for free. If you are looking for unique and meaningful ways to supplement your lessons, I highly encourage you to check out Project Archaeology today.
Be sure to keep an eye out on our website as well as on the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve's websites for information on the next Project Archaeology: Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin teacher training workshop. You can also e-mail us for more information at KGidusko@flagler.edu.
