Last updated: September 3, 2020
Lesson Plan
Archeology at Fort Frederica
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Science,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 8.L.4, 8.L.4.a, 6-8.RH.1, 6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RH.10, 6-8.RST.1, 6-8.RST.2, 6-8.RST.4, 6-8.RST.7, 6-8.RST.9, 6-8.RST.10, 8.SL.1
- Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
What can archeology reveal about military and home life at Fort Frederica?
What evidence did archeologists use?
How can this evidence help explore themes of trade, environment, and social status?
Este plan de clase con actividades incluido también está disponible en español.
Objective
Students will learn about Fort Frederica using historical information and archeological finds, using virtual 3D models of artifacts. At the end of the lesson, students will have a greater understanding of three concepts: 1) the history of Fort Frederica 2) the types of evidence archeologists use including artifacts, features, and types of historical documents and 3) the ways archeological evidence revealed daily life at Fort Frederica in the past.
Background
The lesson uses interactive learning in the form of manipulative, 3D artifact models to teach students about Fort Frederica National Monument. This lesson also teaches the connection between archeological analysis and historical documents. When used together, these resources help reveal and explore Fort Frederica's important history within colonial America and afterwards.
Archeology is the study of humans in the past. Archeology is an interdisciplinary field, using subject areas such as historical research, ethnographic studies, geological surveys, and other forms of scientific analysis.
Over the past decades, 3D technology has become increasingly used within archeological analysis. Digital and printed 3D models of artifacts, features, and entire sites provide three benefits. First, archeologists can use models to analyze resources in ways that they could not before and therefore discover more details about their use within the past. Second, models help preserve resources for future generations. This is especially helpful for resources that are threatened by erosion and development. Third, models allow members of the public have more engaging, interactive experiences with objects. Through such experiences, people form deeper and more lasting connections to these resources.
Fort Frederica National Monument contains the archeological remains of both an English military fort and a civilian town occupied between 1738 and 1758, including evidence of its occupants’ daily lives, including personal smoking pipes and broken ceramic dishes. In addition, remains of the fort itself, defensive walls, ditches, and palisades illustrate the constant threat of attack that these individuals faced. Historical archeologists use written documents to explain and provide context for excavated artifacts and features. Excavations corroborate historical accounts of locations for buildings in the fort and town.
This lesson therefore accomplishes two goals. It provides a wider understanding of archeological methods, focusing on the various methods archeologists use to analyze a site. Through 3D technology, the lesson also connects students in a more meaningful way to a specific site where those methods were applied. With these models, students are able to directly interact with the same items Fort Frederica's occupants used hundreds of years ago.
Preparation
Before the lesson, teachers should either access the four featured 3D artifact models. Students will need pens/pencils and copies of the Student Handout.
Materials
This handout provides background reading material and questions.
Teachers can use this answer key to check students' work.
Lesson plan translated into Spanish.
Download Arqueología en Fort Frederica
Answer key translated into Spanish.
Download Arqueología en Fort Frederica Hoja de respuestas
Lesson Hook/Preview
This lesson uses virtual, 3D models of artifacts excavated from Fort Frederica. It connects historical information about the fort with real, interactive experiences of the items people there in the past used every day.
Procedure
Step 1) Distribute Student Handouts. Review the vocabulary terms with students.
Emphasize how archeology is a scientific process that helps understand more about people’s lives in the past. Often, excavations help uncover events and narratives that were not recorded in history. Guide a conversation with students about why this is important.
Step 2) Explain to students that Fort Frederica is one example of how historical archeology can be used to discover more about the past. Distribute the Student Handout. Have students read Part I: Fort Frederica, Then and Now and complete the questions either individually or in groups.
Step 3) Open and display the four featured 3D modeled artifacts either on a projected screen or personal student devices. Have students use these models to complete Part II and III of the Student Handout. If time allows, review and discuss their answers as a group.
Vocabulary
Archeology: the study of humans within the past
Artifact: an item made and used by people in the past
Context: where an artifact or feature was found on a site, including how deeply buried
Excavation: scientific digging at a site during which archeologists record artifacts, features, and their contexts
Feature: non-moveable parts of a site such as building ruins, firepits, or wells
In-situ: “in place”; used to describe artifacts or features that have not moved from their original position in the ground
Post-depositional processes: the human actions or natural forces (e.g. wind, water, animal gnawing) that act on an object after it its original placement in the ground, possibly moving it to a new location
Site: area that contains archeological traces of people of the past, either artifacts or features
Supports for Struggling Learners
Teachers can ask students to read the text out loud. After each section, teachers can review the main points with the students.
Enrichment Activities
Explore the Colonial Frederica Town Storymap. How does having digitized records (including artifact models) help preserve the history of Fort Frederica and other archeological sites?
Additional Resources
Fort Frederica 3D artifacts. Sketchfab. National Park Service, 2018.
Fort Frederica National Monument, specifically History and Culture and Archeology at Frederica. National Park Service.
Museum Collections: Fort Frederica. National Park Service.
Site Unseen: Remote Sensing at Fort Frederica. National Park Service, 2018.