Four River Valley Civilizations

Independent Research Projects

The Eighth Grade Ancient History Scholars branched out and researched any topic they found interesting.  They could research anything, from any time period, anywhere in the world, as long as they could tie it to archaeology. 

The Eighth Graders became experts on their research topic.  They created visual aids to help their "students" understand the information being presented.

 The targeted skills for this project were:
 1) Power Google Searching (with a special lesson from Mrs. Cusick)
 2) Evaluating Web Sites
 3) Proper Documentation and Turabian Bibliography Format

Interpreting Artifacts from Unique Civilizations

Eighth Grade Ancient History Scholars Make Inferences about "Rescued" Artifacts!

After creating their own unique civilization and creating artifacts representing their culture's universals, the students received a box of "found" artifacts and after measuring, drawing, and cataloging each artifact, they gave their best interpretations of the culture which produced the artifacts.  There were many discussions about the evidence left behind, and some of the languages were very difficult to decipher.

You can visit the "Museum of Unique Treasures" in the Middle School Library to see the inferences they made.

Wichita City Archaeologist Visits Our Class!

Emily Jones, Wichita City Archaeologist shared information and artifacts with our class.  You can access her power point presentation below.

A NEW LINK - ARE YOU RELATED TO OTZI?
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/10/14/living-relatives-iceman-mummy-found/

Field Trip - WSU Anthropology Department

Archaeology - Creating a Culture

(Group activities with individual components)

Creating a Civilization:

• Teams of students studied cultural universals which represent a society, such as government, economics, attitude toward the unknown, ethics and values. 
• They then did "backward" archaeology by creating a civilization in the past, present, or future, and deciding which cultural universals were the most important to that society. Each team member made artifacts which would best represent those aspects of their society. 
•  They also created a written language, leaving behind a "Rosetta Stone" with their culture's language, English, and Latin (for extra credit!) on it, and artifacts with only their language on them.

• Soon another team will try to interpret their artifacts, and make inferences about what was important to their culture.

Archaeology

Upcoming Events in Ancient History Class:
10/4  -  Field Trip to WSU Anthropology Department - Museum, Archaeology Lab, and Bio Lab with Dr. Peer Moore-Jansen
10/7  -  Special Presentation - Kansas Archaeology by Steve Elmore
10/10 - The "Dig!)
10/11 - Special Presentation - Wichita City Archaeologist Emily Jones
10/15 - Parents welcome to visit the Museum of Unique Treasures in the MS Library
10/21 - Independent Research Projects due

TBA  - Surprise Excavation! 

The Eighth Grade Ancient History scholars are beginning their first research project this week. 

•  Each student will choose a topic relating in some way to archaeology.  It can be from any point in history, and relate to any place in the world.  This is their chance to investigate something they find personally interesting.  

• The students will research and become an expert on this topic.  

• Then they will teach a lesson to the class presenting their research.  

• They must each create a visual project to help get their information across to their "students." 

•  The research components emphasized during this project are evaluating web sources and proper bibliography formatting and documentation. 

•  Please ask an eighth grader to show you their Independent Research Project Forms for more information.