Curated OER
The Mathematician And The Archaeologist
Students decorate clay pots and destroy them in order to learn the techniques of modern-day archaeologists and practice mathematical measurements. This is an exciting instructional activity suitable for Social Studies, Math, Science, or...
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Archaeology: Digging in the Classroom
Students explore how an archaeologist works and makes discoveries. In this archaeology lesson, students participate in a simulation in which they excavate broken pottery. Students use measurement, geometry, and observation skills during...
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Do You Have a Sinking Feeling
Students determine how marine archaeologists use historical and archaeological data to draw inferences about shipwrecks. Students plot the position of a shipwrecked vessel, and draw inferences about the shipwreck from artifacts that have...
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Lesson Design Archaeology- Measuring Distance
Young scholars measure and write specific metric distances. In this archaeology lesson, students are given specific artifact locations on a map and measure the distance using millimeters.
Statistics Education Web
Sampling in Archaeology
Compare different random sampling types using an archaeological setting. Scholars collect data from an archaeological plot using simple random samples, stratified random samples, systematic random samples, and cluster random samples....
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Where Did Everyone Go?
Fifth graders view a video, and perform related activities on prehistoric archaeology to gain an understanding about the importance of careful data collection. They develop a system of cataloging objects using coordinate mapping to...
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Carbon 14 Dating
Evaluating and analyzing exponential functions will help your archaeologists find the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant in this real-life task centered on carbon dating. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of half-life.
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Discovering Pi
Students investigate the math concept of Pi (specifically, what pi is, the significance and how it is used in the real world). This is a hands on lesson plan in which the students actively participate with their investigations.
The...
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Carbon 14 Dating, Variation 2
Your archaeologists begin this task with a table of values to estimate the time passed based on the half-life of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant. They then move on to find when a specific amount of Carbon 14 is present in the same plant,...
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Carbon 14 Dating in Practice II
Your archaeologists combine proportional reasoning with exponential functions in a real-life task centered on Carbon 14 dating.
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Carbon 14 Dating in Practice I
Analyzing and evaluating exponential functions will help your archaeologists find the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant in this real-life task centered on carbon dating. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of...
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Measuring Pots
Students use an activity sheet to construct analogies about possible function of ancient or historic ceramics and compute circumference from a section of a circle as they study measuring pots.
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Mapping the Bone Field: An Area and Scale Exercise
Here is an excellent cross-curricular lesson. Learners relate multiplication to area by making a grid on graph paper, and then creating the same grid in real space outside in the school yard.
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Excavating the Trash
Students look at a day's accumulation of recyclable trash from first through fifth grade classrooms, not knowing which classes it came from. After setting up a collection sheet for data, students remove items from the receptacle and...
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Coordinate Grid: Mapping an Archaeological Site
Students examine how archaeologists preserve context of sites through use of rectangular grid or Cartesian coordinate system, and develop sense of distance by pacing off and estimating distances.
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Mapping with a Compass: A Simulated Survey
Students use compasses and grids to map the locations of artifacts found in a simulated dig site. In groups, they role-play as future archeologists excavating a school site. Groups begin at their assigned datum and site the artifacts...
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Mapping a Site Using a Coordinate Plane
Learners map their playground as if it were an archeological site. They locate objects on the playground and determine their location using coordinate points. A related lesson is Coordinate Grid: Mapping an Archeological Site.
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Subtracting Fractions
In this math worksheet, students subtract the fractions using unlike denominators. The answers are used for the coded message at the bottom of the page.
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Gridding a 2 x 2 Meter Unit
Students use the internet to examine what happens at an archeological dig site. In groups, they practice measuring a 2x2 meter square unit and gridding it out as an archeologist would do. They review the possible solutions at the end of...
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"how To Think Like an Archaeologist" Suggested Pre-visit Activity for Historic Jamestowne
Learners study grocery receipts to simulate the archaeological activity of classifying items. They discuss the receipts as if they were find lists.
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Mound Math
Middle schoolers examine the many different burial mounds in Wisconsin. In groups, they use the internet to discover how long it took to build a specific mound. They must calculate the measurements of the mound to make a scale model.
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Investigating Pot Sherds
Sixth graders measure pot sherds and use their knowledge of Pi to infer possible uses of pottery. They also infer possible functions of ancient ceramics. After tracing rounded pottery pieces onto paper, 6th graders use compasses to...
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Grid Frame Mapping
Students map and describe small area of the schoolyard and discuss habitats.
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Mapping and Excavating a Jello Mold
Fifth graders, in groups, map the three layers of different colored jello layers in molds and note the placement of fruit in them. On the grid paper they draw each grape, raisin, or other object and carefully remove each layer. After...