Underwater Excavation
By Tina Rice

The 5th grade students are learning about European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries by “excavating” and examining objects from a “sunken ship”.  Pairs of students take on the role of underwater archeologists to investigate eight placards, each of which contains an image of an artifact from an explorer’s sunken ship, such as a Bible, a compass, tobacco, etc.  With the classroom darkened, the underwater sounds playing, and the students “dressed” for their dives in goggles, flippers, snorkels, etc., they dive into the sunken ship, retrieve the artifact, and then carefully analyze and read about it.  Next, students categorize them in one of three ways: as motive for exploration, as new technology that encouraged exploration, or as “new” products from the Americas.  Finally, students discuss what the artifacts reveal about exploration. Photos Taken By: Andrew Hess