Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom

The Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom project, modeled after the Fossils in the Classroom, continues to enhance and expand the Museum’s and University’s outreach efforts across the state by providing much needed hands-on resources on archaeology to teachers and students. This project provides classroom kits featuring hands-on artifacts and casts, standards-based curriculum, in-district teacher professional development and a classroom presentation. The response from teachers to the kits has been overwhelmingly positive, as a hands-on and affordable resource for teaching Colorado history. 

The Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom is developed for Colorado School Districts by:

• Dr. Stephen Lekson, Ph.D. Professor, Anthropology, and Curator of Archaeology, CU Museum of Natural History, Boulder.
• Dr. Samantha Fladd, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, and Curator of Archaeology, CU Museum of Natural History, Boulder.
• Dr. William Taylor, Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology, CU Museum of Natural History, Boulder.
• Jim Hakala, Senior Educator, CU Museum of Natural History, Boulder.

Partners in the Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom project include:

• Mesa Verde National Park provides educational materials for the Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom kits and collaborates in the in-district teacher training for the project.
• The Mesa Verde Museum Association provides printed and digital educational materials for the Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom kits.
• The Federal Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) "Discovering Archaeology in Colorado" and "Intrigue of the Past" is used with BLM's collaboration as the curriculum/teacher guide for the kits. This standards-based curriculum is widely used and well established in the field.
• The State Historic Preservation Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation provides the publication "Ancient Colorado: An Archaeological Perspective" for inclusion in the classroom kits. 
• The Crow Canyon Archeological Center in Cortez, CO provided important visual timeline materials and hundreds of pottery sherds for inclusion in the kits.
• The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, provided hundreds of pottery sherds for inclusion in the classroom kits.
• CU's Science Discovery advertises and manages the logistics for the Colorado Archaeology classroom presentation.

To find out how to get a Colorado Archaeology kit and curriculum for your classroom or school, arrange an in-district teacher training, and/or a presentation for your classroom, please contact Jim Hakala, Senior Educator, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History at 303-492-4458, or james.hakala@colorado.edu.

Colorado Archaeology in the Classroom is generously funded by the University of Colorado Boulder Office of Strategic Relations and Communications and the University of Colorado Boulder Museum of Natural History.