Digging into History: Authentic Learning through Archeology

Facts, or skills? Content, or process? Teachers of history and social studies teachers often lock horns over these questions, trying to define the nature of their field and its role in secondary education. Teachers of history often focus on content, presenting the past as a series of important people and events, an accumulated cultural lore that should be mastered by all students. Teachers of social studies, on the other hand, tend to approach the past more thematically, drawing on students' own experiences in order to promote social awareness, multicultural perspectives, and academic skills. As a fairly traditional teacher, the author had always been solidly in the "history-as-content" camp, until a recent experience teaching archaeology at the secondary level changed his outlook and methods dramatically. Initially, as he planned the course at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, he had no idea that archaeology would spark such enthusiasm among students, or be such an ideal pedagogical subject. Real archaeology is a branch of anthropology that uses physical remains to investigate the human past. Archaeology, by nature, is a hands-on discipline, and offers many opportunities for experiential and constructive learning. In this article, the author describes simulated excavation exercises that can easily be replicated in a variety of school settings. He also offers some suggestions for those who would like to replicate the excavation activity. (Contains 6 figures.)