DIG! Goes to College: Experiential Learning in the College Classroom

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Archibald Blair Site at Colonial Williamsburg, used for DIG!: Kids, Dirt, and Discovery since 2015, offered as many research questions as it did opportunities for participants to engage in experiential learning. Through a stroke of luck, the National Institute of American History and Democracy (NIAHD) at the College of William and Mary needed a campus-based course with a focus on archaeology. The questions raised by artifacts recovered by DIG! Participants, particularly those that seemed to relate to Julia Minson, an African-American woman who lived on the property from 1860 to her death in 1885, formed the core of an experiential learning class for undergraduates during the Fall 2017 semester. This paper examines that teaching experience, through the lenses of several experiential learning opportunities for the students: excavation, conducting primary source research, working with artifacts, and presenting their work to the public.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 325