The Integration of Archaeology and its Principles into the Core Curriculum

Summary

Introduction to Archaeology is often included in the college/university wide core curriculum (social/behavioral science module), as well as being a required class for undergraduate majors. This inclusion allows us to introduce the SAA curricular goals to a larger community. At the University of Colorado Denver, multiple laboratory sections of 15 students each are attached to very large lecture sections. The laboratories provide hands on exercises tailored to the historic and prehistoric archaeology of the area. By concentrating on local concerns, students develop fundamental analytic skills, participate in data analysis, and have issues of local diversity and social relevance brought home. In Fall 2014, one laboratory section was linked to a freshman seminar class (topic local history), a freshman composition class and co-curricular activities centered on Denver and Colorado history to form a Living Learning Community (LLC) for first time freshman. The linked classes and content emphasis on local history and prehistory in this LLC reinforces ideas about the relationship of the past to the present, diversity of experience in local areas and the importance of preservation and stewardship. Examples of laboratory exercises ad co-curricular activities will be discussed.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Teaching Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century: Activities for the College Classroom   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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