Documentary: Archaeology Dig at Riversisde School

Discovering Ancient History: An Archaeology Documentary

Objective: Students research to gain an in-depth understanding of one ancient civilization’s culture and develop a documentary to share with the class.

Overview: The classroom hosts 5 dig sites where student archaeologists unearth artifacts from 5 different ancient civilizations. They use the clues of the artifacts to determine which civilization they are uncovering. Students use each of these artifacts as a clue to lead them in a research project to uncover the culture of their civilization. Using Flip Cameras, students record their dig, and the artifacts and film recreations of what life was like during this time period. Using our school’s chromo-key equipped video lab, they edit their video and audio footage to create a documentary of their ancient civilization complete with narration. Each video is shared with the rest of the class.


MATERIALS:
Archaeology Dig: Create a dig site right in the classroom:
Build five long, narrow boxes approximately 4’x2’x6” with a plywood bottom. Create a dig site for the students using replicas of artifacts. After laying a foundation layer of soil in the box, begin placing artifacts in the soil. Layer the soil so as they dig down, they will find pieces at different levels.
Trowels, small shovels, brushes, pans
Examples of Egyptian artifacts that can be created by the teacher for use in the dig site:
Plush cat wrapped in bandaging to suit as mummified remains
Pottery with paintings of a mummification ceremony to suit as canopic jars
Parchment with hieroglyphics sealed in pottery to serve as documentation about the government or family structure. (students can decipher the information to learn more)
Clay school tablets to show that children would have gone to school and to show what they would be learning.
Jewelry pieces that are found near royalty to depict societal arrangements
Rough Mancala board as an example of entertainment and math ingenuity

Research Chest: Create a box for the groups. Each ancient civilization box should include library books suitable for the topics, a large map of the area, (see National Geographic for ancient maps,) any information cards or comprehension lesson cards, a list of a few reliable and informative web site addresses in relation to the topic, and a documentary about a topic of the culture. This is NOT a documentary on the whole civilization. (That is what they will be producing)

Museum Field Trip/ Collection Viewing
Students should be offered the opportunity to view and photograph actual artifacts from their ancient civilization. This can be done via field trip to a suitable museum or through arts in education visitation presentations from collectors. If either of these methods is not available try to solicit items from students’ families or local collectors. (Set up a school museum for an afternoon)

Technology Support Materials:
Flip cameras (Each group should have 2 cameras in order to document all aspects of their work.)
Voice recorders for narration
Greenscreen/Chroma Key software (Visual Communications/ Photo Shop Premier)

Procedure:
1) PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Instructional overview of each of the 5 civilization. Information from the social studies text may be used. This is to include enough information so that, as students conduct their archaeological dig, they have enough knowledge of each civilization in order to put the clues together to determine which civilization they are uncovering.
2) ARCHAEOLOGY DIG INSTRUCTION: Provide instruction and information to students which explains how an archaeology dig is conducted. This lesson may include a video presentation or there are chapters in social studies and non-fiction books on the topic.
3) DOCUMENTARY INSTRUCTION: Instruct students on finer points of creating a documentary. Instruct them on the use of the flip cameras and on staging a scene.
4) ARCHAEOLOGY DIG: Create a real life scenario in your classroom where students enter the room to find that they are on a dig site. They are given dig tools such as small shovels, trowels, brushes and pans. They follow the instructions that the real life archaeologists followed as learned in the previous video. You will want to encourage students to get into character. This will make for great video footage for their documentary.
-As students partake in the dig, they record their discovery with the Flip Camera.
-Students log each artifact as they uncover it. They photograph the site and the artifacts as well as taking video.
-Upon completing the dig, they move into their research work.
-They use online resources to determine the significance of the artifacts found at their dig site. They will need to be creative minded in this in as much as they are not true artifacts.
5) ADDITIONAL RESEARCH: Students are given an outline of areas of culture that they will need to include in their documentary:
-government -religion
-language -entertainment
-education -economy
-family -construction/invention

Studentsuse their research chest to fill in missing information about areas of culture for their ancient civilization.
6) FIELD TRIP/ARTS IN EDUCATION: If possible, provide an opportunity for students to go to a museum or to see artifacts that are brought into the school. They will film these with narration to add to their documentary.
7) DRAMATIZATION: Students write script and add costumes to recreate aspects of what life would have been like during ancient times. Use Flip Cameras to film these with chroma key compositing , (greenscreen,) so the backgrounds can be realistic and definitive of each specific region. The teacher can give them specific areas of the culture for them to create their dramatization about.
8) Students edit their video clips and add narration where necessary.

Conclusion: As a whole, the class views each of the videos. These viewings can include question answer periods or question sheets. Students are encouraged to use Flip Cameras to create documentaries and dramatizations to accompany other areas of study.