Archaeology and Education – Learning Outdoors (pt 3): After the Visit

One of the biggest mistakes in taking students on field trips is not following up the visit with continued learning back at school.  There are a multitude of cross-curricular opportunities following every visit.  This prolongs the visit and thus, prolongs the learning.  This post (the third of three) will explore some of these possibilities.

The most obvious form of follow-up is to use the numbers collected at the site in math class, use the drawings and photographs in art class, review the evidence in history class, etc.  You can also encourage communication skills in various classes using writing projects, digital recording (video, etc), drawing projects, physical projects like wall displays, models, reconstructions, photo displays (physical and digital), or any combination with the purpose of showing the school and parents what they learned.  It might even be possible to put something up on the school’s website, facebook, flickr, or other such sites (which would use computer skills).

In history/social-studies class you want to have discussion covering issues such as wear and tear caused by visitors at the site, the re-use of historic buildings, ways the community might preserve or display this site, or other heritage issues (see Culture Heritage posts for ideas).

As for you and your team, an evaluation will need to take place.  You might call the staff that went with you together and discuss things that went well and things that didn’t.  You will want to look for ways to improve not only to make the trip run smoother, but also ways to improve learning.  Some of the team might have some constructive ideas that will help the process of teaching at the site.  (Again, I would love to hear from you so we can all improve.)  Look at your aims that you created before you left.  Did you achieve these?  Why or Why not?  Just because something didn’t work that you tried, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work at another site.  Did you have a good idea that might work better elsewhere?  Did the students enjoy the learning experience?

I am looking at all three of these posts not from a teacher’s eye but from a tour director’s eye (as that is how I will most likely be visiting archaeological sites).  We have to do an essay for this class (due in January).  I have received permission to use the information that I have just shared with you and try to adapt it to that unique form of learning.  I will let you know how that goes (probably work on it over the Christmas holiday).