Lessons by Staff Picks
Our staff picks are a selection of our most popular lesson plans from our Intrigue of the Past guide. From social studies lesson plans to science activities, these instructional classroom activities have been handpicked and teacher approved!
Lesson Plans
In their study of observation and inference, students will use activity sheets and coins to differentiate between observation and inference through a problem-solving approach; and demonstrate their knowledge by analyzing an archaeological artifact and creating their own observation-inference statements.
1.6 Classification and Attributes
In their study of classification and attributes, students will use “doohickey kits” to classify objects based on their attributes; and to explain that scientists and specifically archaeologists use classification to help answer research questions.
In studying archaeological concepts, students will analyze garbage from different places to demonstrate competence in applying the concept of culture, context, classification, observation and inference, chronology, and scientific inquiry; and to explain how their study of garbage relates to the methods of archaeology.
2.5 Archaeobotany
In their study of archaeobotany, students will use pictures of seeds, an activity sheet, and a graph to identify seven seeds and the conditions in which they grow; to infer ancient plant use by interpreting archaeobotanical samples; to determine changing plant use by Native North Carolinians by interpreting a graph of seed frequency over time.
2.11 Inference by Analogy
In their study of inference by analogy, students will use historical sources and an archaeological site map to infer the use or meaning of items recovered from a North Carolina Native American site based on 17th-century European settlers’ accounts and illustrations; to describe prehistoric lifeways based on archaeological and ethnohistoric information; and to explain why archaeologists use ethnohistoric analogy.