Resources for Educators
Why Teach Archaeology?
Archaeology in the classroom offers a multi-disciplinary educational experience. Teach a lesson about basic human needs by studying changes in housing through time. Engage in a discussion about climate change by looking at data from ice cores and pollen samples. Make coordinate systems fun by recreating a historic homestead from the three-dimensional locations of artifacts. Archaeology is a perfect vehicle for tackling a wide array of topics, including challenging subjects like racism, cultural understanding, and ethics.
Classroom activities and materials using archaeology readily align with national standards and curricula. Archaeology can be integrated with mathematics, geography, history, physical sciences, art, and many other subjects. The links on this page direct you to a wide variety of local and online resources, including lesson plans and training opportunities.
Online Resources for Educators
The Pueblo Farming Project — a collaboration between the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, and Montezuma School-to-Farm — provides standards-aligned lesson plans for middle school students, a documentary film, and an eBook that presents the results of the project. Students can learn about the origins of maize, its lifecycle, and its important role in Hopi communities through time.
Project Archaeology is a comprehensive archaeology and heritage education program for everyone interested in learning or teaching about our nation’s rich cultural legacy and protecting it for future generations.
The Society for American Archaeology’s Archaeology for Educators page provides background information on archaeology as well as hands-on and interactive activities to introduce the fascinating field of archaeology to students of all ages.
The National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places site uses properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. The site includes a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center educators have developed a variety of Classroom Resources designed to actively engage students of various ages in the study of archaeology and American Indian history.
The Archaeological Institute of America works with archaeologists, educators, and museum staff to create and compile Programs and Resources that you can use in your classroom or at home to explain what archaeology is and what archaeologists do.
Archaeology in the Community is a nonprofit organization that partners with educational institutions, cultural establishments and community organizations to increase awareness of the benefits of archaeology, provide archaeology enrichment programs to students of all ages, and provide professional development to college students interested in pursuing careers in archaeology.
Public lands offer a wide array of educational opportunities. Discover materials to enliven your lesson plans and learn about outdoor classroom opportunities at the Bureau of Land Management’s Learning Landscapes site.
The Archaeology Education Clearinghouse, sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society for American Archaeology, and the Society for Historical Archaeology, is dedicated to promoting the use of archaeology in classrooms.
History Colorado's Online Exhibits make Colorado history come alive through creative presentation of authentic artifacts, historical images, and audio-visual materials. Interactive and social media components provide forums for conversation relating past themes and issues to contemporary life.
Local Resources and Teacher Training
The Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists’ (CCPA) Education Committee promotes public education in archaeology and cultural resources management. The committee is made up of individuals from across the discipline who are committed public outreach. The committee creates educational opportunities within and outside of the field of archaeology and supports efforts to train future generations of archaeologists.
The committee is the state’s primary sponsor of the nationally recognized archaeology education curriculum, Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter. Using grant funding provided to CCPA by the Bureau of Land Management the committee coordinates Project Archaeology Professional Development Workshops. The committee also coordinates partnerships between CCPA and History Colorado, the Colorado Archaeology Society, local universities and colleges, and cultural resource management firms.
Click here for information about upcoming archaeology education events.
For more information about CCPA Education Committee activities contact:
Committee Co-Chairs
Bonnie Gibson
(303) 589-9779
bkggibson@yahoo.com
Rebecca (Becca) Simon
(202) 641-4303 (cell)
(303) 866-4671 (office)
rlsimon1415@gmail.com
rebecca.simon@state.co.us
Project Archaeology State Coordinator for Colorado
Danielle (Dani) Hoefer
(303) 803-2484
dmhoefer53@comcast.net
