Gathering, Gardening, and Agriculture: Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Plant-based Public Archeology

Summary

The Arkansas Archeological Survey has been practicing citizen science and developing educational tools for engaging local communities in the study of the past since the 1960s. In this paper, we discuss recent efforts by the Survey to develop educational content specifically aimed at highlighting the history of plant use through time in the southeastern United States. The Survey received grant funds to develop the 5th grade social studies curriculum, Gathering, Gardening, and Agriculture: Plant-based Foodways in the Southeastern United States. We designed the curriculum to improve students’ scientific literacy and foster a greater sense of the importance of preservation among both students and teachers. Through this curriculum, teacher workshops, web-based content, and native gardens at several research stations, we have developed a suite of educational approaches to help teach how people in the past used plants, while emphasizing the important contributions that southeastern Indians made to the ways people use plants today. We discuss the success of our approach to public archeology and education, as well as our assessment and evaluation of our educational programming as we considered education and archeology in the 21st century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21494