Archaeology Class Activity: Suitcase Dig, Papers of School management&administration

Download Archaeology Class Activity: Suitcase Dig and more Papers School management&administration in PDF only on Docsity! A Daily Lesson Plan: Inquiry Experience Lesson Topic/Title: Artifact or Fiction: The Changeable Nature of Scientific Knowledge Recommended Grade Level: Grade 5 Unit Theme: Change Objective(s) The student will demonstrate:  Skill in making accurate observations about artifacts, making reasonable inferences based on observations, and revising inferences based on “new” information.  Knowledge of the work/skills of an archaeologist and of how scientific “facts” are sometimes subject to change.  Creative thinking skills in imagining what future archaeologists might infer about “artifacts” from the present day.  An appreciation of models and how they can be used to further our understanding of a process. Related TEKS: 112.7. Science, Grade 5; Knowledge and skills; (2) Scientific processes: The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations; (C) The student is expected to: analyze and interpret information to construct explanations from direct and indirect experience. Procedure Advance Preparation:  Borrow items to be packed in a suitcase from an adult whom the students know. Select items that have potential for revealing something about the owner’s characteristics and/or background.  Pack these items in a suitcase, grouping like items (e.g., jewelry, clothing) together and separating each set of items from the next set with a layer of tissue paper. The layers of tissue paper are analogous to layers of soil in an archaeological dig.  Plan for two or three sets of items (or layers of artifacts), with each set of items consisting of at least 1 item for every 4 students in your classroom.  Prepare a handout entitled “Data Summary Table” and reproduce one copy for every 4 students. The blank table should consist of 3 columns labeled “Object,” “Observations,” and “Inferences.”  Draw a cross-sectional outline of the suitcase on the chalkboard. (Imagine you are viewing the suitcase from the side where the handle is located. Identifying the Problem:  Before initiating the “suitcase dig” activity described below, read W. John Hackwell’s (1986) Digging to the Past to your class. Have the class identify and discuss the various tasks/jobs (e.g., excavator, cataloger, field laboratory technician) done by archaeologists during a dig. Use this discussion as a springboard for organizing students into cooperative learning groups and assigning roles.  Divide students into “field laboratory technician teams” (i.e. cooperative learning groups of 4 students each). Assign each member of the team a role as follows: (a) discussion leader, (b) artifact handler, (c) recorder, and (d) spokesperson. The role of the discussion leader is to keep the group members on task as they analyze artifacts from the suitcase and discuss possible observations and inferences. The artifact handler is responsible for transporting artifacts to and from his/her group. The recorder transcribes the group’s agreed-upon observations and inferences on a data summary table, and the reporter orally shares his/her group’s observations and inferences with the rest of the class.  Tell students that human history can be divided into 2 separate time periods— prehistory and history. Prehistory, a period of approximately 1 million years, was before the invention of writing, while history, a period of approximately 5 thousand years, spans human existence from the invention of writing to the present. (Show poster of human history timeline.)  Ask students how scientists are able to tell us how people lived in the distant past, when these scientists may have no (or limited) written records from which to draw information. Lead students to understand (a) that scientists (archaeologists) learn about past cultures by examining objects (artifacts) from those cultures, (b) that scientists dig (excavate) into the earth to locates these objects, which have become buried under layers of soil with the passage of time, and (c) that the oldest objects are in the deepest layers. (Show poster of cross-sectional drawing of an archaeological dig.)  Reveal the packed suitcase. Tell the students that they are going to act as archaeologists trying to find out what the person is/was like who packed the suitcase. State the problem as follows: “Who packed the suitcase? What is/was the person like?” Generating Hypotheses  Conduct a “suitcase dig” according to the following procedural steps:  Students take turns “excavating” the suitcase by removing 1 “artifact” at a time. Stop the excavation when all items from the first layer have been removed.  Students also take turns as the “cataloger,” drawing and labeling a simple picture of each artifact as part of a cross-sectional diagram of the suitcase and its contents. This diagram, drawn on the chalkboard, serves as record of each artifact’s original location within the suitcase. Be sure that the cataloger draws a line to represent the tissue paper which lies beneath the first set of artifacts and separates the first and second sets of artifacts.  Distribute the artifacts from the first layer—1 artifact to each “artifact handler.” The artifact handlers convey these artifacts, along with a “Data Summary Table” handout, to their respective “field laboratory technician teams” for analysis.  Ask each team to analyze its assigned artifact as follows: o Make accurate observations about the artifact. o Record observations on your summary table