Explorations in Archeology and History

Video Summary: How can ancient history and archeology be brought to life in the classroom? To launch her lesson on world civilizations, Gwen Larsen begins by looking at each student's personal history. By taking on the roles of archeologists and presenting their own heirlooms, students learn how to decipher artifacts and make connections to the past.

Students create "identity cubes" to illustrate elements of their personal histories. Then, the class works together to define history and archeology and to learn archeology terms and methods. Presented with artifacts and representations of fossils, students begin the process of questioning, classifying, drawing, and describing.

On day two of the lesson, students bring in heirlooms -- family artifacts, for example -- they might want to pass on. Then, students draw and describe the meanings of their heirlooms and present them to the class.