Hands-On Learning Applications in University Archaeological Science Courses

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Pedagogy in the Undergraduate Archaeology Classroom" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Material evidence is the hallmark of archaeological investigations, but bringing the reality of actual materials to the classroom can be challenging. We observe that the multisensory impact of hands-on activities in the classroom conveys key information and is a valuable way to engage students at the first-year, advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. In our CAAM archaeological science courses, we employ four structured categories of hands-on learning: (1) skills-based learning, in which students learn proper lab methods and equipment use; (2) experiential learning, in which students become familiar with important raw materials and their transformation; (3) experimental archaeology, in which students make systematic observations under controlled circumstances to test hypotheses; and (4) object-based learning, in which students work with archaeological artifacts to make original observations. Offering scaffolded experiences from the earliest levels of coursework allows students to prepare for increasingly demanding interpretive tasks as archaeologists, and highlights aspects of archaeological techniques and methods of inquiry that may be applied to other fields of research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Pedagogy in the Undergraduate Archaeology Classroom   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36158.0