Students Explore an Archaeological Dig Site

Students Explore an Archaeological Dig Site
Posted on 05/10/2017
Archaeological Dig Site

Putting a new twist on the Ancient Civilizations Unit, 6th grade teacher, Tammy Delaney, spent several hours over the weekend to transform her classroom into an archaeological dig site based around Indiana Jones.

Dressed up as a crew member from Indiana Jones’s crew, Delaney was helping to find the next archaeologist to join Indiana Jones’s team for his next adventure.  How could students qualify?  Working in groups, students examined Middle East artifacts on loan from Buena Vista University (BVU), pondering what the artifacts might be, the purpose, who was the audience and how to connect the artifacts to their life. They also drew and labeled the artifacts and talked about what it was made of, who used it and why. 

After navigating through the stations over a two-day period, students wrote a persuasive paper using the evidence from their inquiry.  The goal of the paper was to convince Indiana Jones which artifact he should put in his personal museum.   The top four papers were selected, and then a letter was written and sent to BVU, to convince the director which artifact is the best, and why they should highlight it in their collection.

When asked why she came up with the idea, Delaney said, “This was more of an authentic experience for the students.  We always analyze the artifacts that Keith Carter, a 6th grade teacher who taught in the Middle East, donated to BVU, and we tie it in with our Ancient Civilizations Unit.  Even though it took about 10 hours to get everything set up, I thought it would be a great way to keep kids engaged at the end of the school year.
