Have you ever wanted to play a part in a story of the past? Mr. Lovell’s freshmen World History class had the pleasure of acting as archaeologists and replicating an event in each of the three eras (from newest to oldest): Neolithic, Mesolithic, and Paleolithic. Instead of excavating a site, the class got to help replace the artifacts and skeleton in a way that will tell a story for the next class that excavates the pit.
Mr. Lovell has used his own experiences for inspiration for this project. “On some of my travels, seeing archaeological digs and going into many ruins myself, I just thought it would be interesting, in addition to taking an archaeology class and discovering how much history is being re-written because of archaeology,” explained Mr. Lovell. This year’s class finished covering the Neolithic era for next year’s class to excavate. The archaeological pit is located out by the JV football practice field.This project gives the class a lot of cross-curriculum education along with lessons in math and group organization skills. “To get this thing done they have to work as a group, and be very organized, so it really helps them learn some organization skills,” said Mr. Lovell. The dig also helps students that struggle with the subject get enough credit to pass; while they might have trouble with things like academic study, some students might be better at organization and hands-on activities. “They’re really good at uncovering things carefully so it uses a type of skill out there that kids never get credit for,” said Mr. Lovell. The credit students get from the project is based on their participation and how hard they work.
The students really enjoyed this project. Placing the artifacts and replicating the past was one of the most fun things for freshman Elliot Krasny. “Placing the objects in a way to make it seem like you were replicating something that happened far in the past, you learn a lot about people who never existed and don’t have a written history and kind of see what life was like back then just from a general idea of the objects and what happened to them,” explained Krasny. The students learned a lot about the Pre-History (prior to written history) era from this project in a fun, hands-on way.
