LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

What Can We Learn From Artifacts?

http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=50

A lesson plan for Grades 3–5 English Language Arts and Social Studies

Provider: American Association for the Advancement of Science

About this resource

Appropriate grades
3–5
Subjects
social studies (anthropology)
Provider
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Legal

Creative Commons License

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In this lesson on archaeology, students will learn about artifacts—what they are, how they are initially buried and then excavated. The purpose of this lesson is to determine what artifacts are, how they are discovered, and what information can be learned from them.

Students have learned very general things about people: what they need to live and that they live in families and communities. Learning about artifacts will expand on the basics. For instance, people need food to live, and by studying artifacts we can learn about what foods people ate long ago, as well as how they ate them. Artifacts can also give insight to behavior, and students may discover clues to how that community operated. They can use their own experiences to compare and contrast how other communities lived.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 3

  • Goal 2: The learner will analyze the multiple roles that individuals perform in families, workplaces, and communities.
    • Objective 2.02: Analyze similarities and differences among families in different times and in different places.
    • Objective 2.03: Describe similarities and differences among communities in different times and in different places.
  • Goal 3: The learner will examine how individuals can initiate change in families, neighborhoods, and communities.
    • Objective 3.01: Analyze changes, which have occurred in communities past and present.

Grade 4

  • Goal 3: The learner will trace the history of colonization in North Carolina and evaluate its significance for diverse people's ideas.
    • Objective 3.01: Assess changes in ways of living over time and determine whether the changes are primarily political, economic, or social.
    • Objective 3.04: Compare and contrast ways in which people, goods, and ideas moved in the past with their movement today.
  • Goal 7: The learner will recognize how technology influences change within North Carolina.
    • Objective 7.03: Explain how technology changed and influenced the movement of people, goods,and ideas over time.

Grade 5

  • Goal 4: The learner will trace key developments in United States history and describe their impact on the land and people of the nation and its neighboring countries.
    • Objective 4.01: Define the role of an historian and explain the importance of studying history.
    • Objective 4.03: Describe the contributions of people of diverse cultures throughout the history of the United States.
  • Goal 6: The learner will recognize how technology has influenced change within the United States and other countries in North America.
    • Objective 6.01: Explore the meaning of technology as it encompasses discoveries from the first primitive tools to today's personal computer.
    • Objective 6.04: Determine how citizens in the United States and the other countries of North America can preserve fundamental values and beliefs in a world that is rapidly becoming more technologically oriented.

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 3

  • Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
    • Objective 3.06: Conduct research for assigned and self-selected projects (with assistance) from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people, libraries, databases, computer networks).

Grade 4

  • Goal 3: The learner will make connections with text through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
    • Objective 3.06: Conduct research for assigned projects or self-selected projects (with assistance) from a variety of sources through the use of technological and informal tools (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people, libraries, databases, computer networks).

Grade 5

  • Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
    • Objective 3.06: Conduct research (with assistance) from a variety of sources for assigned or self-selected projects (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people, libraries, databases, computer networks).