Timothy Ryan and Robert Huitt

Ryan’s and Huitt’s innovative teaching idea, “’Dig’ Archaeology,” is focused on introducing 12th-grade honors students from McCluer North High School to the rigors of archaeological inquiry and practice as it relates to a primary historical site within the Florissant city limits. Students will create an entire civilization from scratch, including a language, artifacts, government, art, religion, and much more using their specific interests and skill sets in a multi-small group format. They then bury the civilization and employ the tools and techniques of archaeology to excavate the trenches, decipher languages, and reconstruct the imagined opposing civilization in order to demonstrate mastery of the skills and concepts taught in the course during a final presentation of their findings. The excavation process will provide students with a thorough and practical knowledge of the practices inherent in New World Archaeology.