Lesson Plans
Below is a collection of lesson plans about cultural heritage and archaeology.
Organization: Science NetLinks
Description: A lesson plan about the social changes that led ancient societies in Central America, Mesopotamia, the American Southwest and Western Africa to collapse. Major social changes and prerequisites for a society's survival are the main themes of the lesson plan.
Age group or class level: Grades 6-8
Organization: Science NetLinks
Description: To teach students the factors that contribute to the collapse of a society; to learn how archaeological evidence is gathered and interpreted.
Age group or class level: Grades 6-8
Organization: Science NetLinks
Description: To introduce students to think like an archaeologist by having them analyze and interpret artifacts from different time periods to simulate how archaeologists learn about people of the past.
Age group or class level: Grades 6-8
Organization: Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies
Description: Instructors Guide used to accompany Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonian AnthroNotes. This guide goes through all of the categories of Anthropology, Biological (Physical) Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology and includes information about linguistic studies.
Age group or class level: Grades 9-12
Instructors Guide (PDF)
Organization: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Description: Field trip lesson plan. Using artifacts (gravestones) to understand cultural changes over time and across regions. Students visit a cemetery, answer questions, and record data.
Age group or class level: middle school age students
Organization: Tamástslikt Cultural Institute
Description: The answers sheet and teachers guide to the “4th Grade Study Guide to Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.”
Age group or class level: Teachers
Organization: Tamástslikt Cultural Institute
Description: An educational guide to lead students in the 4th grade through the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute with questions to keep students engaged.
Age group or class level: 4th Grade Students
4th Grade Study Guide to Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (PDF)
Organization: University of North Carolina
Description: In their study of archaeological issues students will use ethical dilemmas to examine their own values and beliefs about archaeological site protection and evaluate possible actions they might take regarding site and artifact protection.
Age group or class level: Middle School/High School students
Artifact Ethics (PDF)
Organization: University of North Carolina
Description: Intrigue of the Past: North Carolina's First Peoples (Chapter 1) results from a marriage of the Bureau of Land Management's Project Archaeology and the University of North Carolina's Research Laboratories of Archaeology's commitment to provide a program designed to share with and teach North Carolina students about our state's rich and fascinating past. Equally important, the program emphasizes that the archaeological evidence of that past is fragile and threatened, and we all have a responsibility to see to its wise use.
Age group or class level: Grades 4-8
Why is the Past Important? (PDF)
Culture Everywhere (PDF)
Observation and Inference (PDF)
Archaeological Context (PDF)
Chronology: The Time of My Life (PDF)
Classification and Attributes (PDF)
Scientific Inquiry (PDF)
Organization: University of North Carolina
Description: Intrigue of the Past: North Carolina's First Peoples (Chapter 2) results from a marriage of the Bureau of Land Management's Project Archaeology and the University of North Carolina's Research Laboratories of Archaeology's commitment to provide a program designed to share with and teach North Carolina students about our state's rich and fascinating past. Equally important, the program emphasizes that the archaeological evidence of that past is fragile and threatened, and we all have a responsibility to see to its wise use.
Age group or class level: Grades 4-8
Gridding A Site (PDF)
Stratigraphy and Cross-Dating (PDF)
Measuring Pots (PDF)
Experimental Archaeology: Making Cordage (PDF)
Looking At An Object (PDF)
Archaeological Soils (PDF)
Inference By Analogy (PDF)