The supervisor had prepared the sites ahead of time, making note of three layers of time, marked by three different soils and storied artifacts embedded into each layer. On the bottom layer of each "site" was a layer of sand. The middle layer revealed darker, aromatic soil (sprayed with air freshener). The top level was a mixture of aquarium gravel, potting soil, and sand.
All were contained in a marked grid on a square table, and each team of archaeologists would excavate a single portion of the grid. For ease of excavation, each block of soil was contained in a clear, plastic shoebox, sitting on a plastic blue tray to aid in minor spills during the operation. Our tools for the activity included the following:
With this, the scene was set for our first day of lively learning in the Hoggatteer classroom. Students were ready to dig into something besides rules and procedures. | Click to enlarge each picture. |