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The USA Today is running an article entitled “Age of Archaeology
Turns 100.”

The article explains that tomorrow simple commemorations will take
place at El Morro (New Mexico) and Motezuma Castle national
parksto remember that President Theodore Roosevelt signed the
Antiquities Act 100 years ago.

“The two-page act allowed excavation and investigation of monuments
only ‘for the benefit of reputable museums, universities, colleges, or
other recognized scientific or educational institutions.’" Most
significantly, the act allows presidents to preserve huge areas of land
as national parks.

In 1908, President Roosevelt set aside the Grand Canyon as a national
park, under this law.
Click Here for the Article!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children
  • What do your students think the oldest object in your
    classroom is? Ask why they think this?
  • You might have your students find out what the oldest
    object in their home is and report back to the class.

  • Ask: Should companies be allowed to buy parks, tear them
    down and build houses in their place? Why/why not? Tell your
    students about a time when you saw a natural area turned into
    either a residential or an industrial area.
  • Ask your students what spot on the school property
    they like most. Why do they like this spot?

  • You might have your students draw pictures of these spots.
    Even better, if your students have access to cameras you might
    invite them to take pictures of their favorite spots. Students
    could write the feelings they have when they see this spot on a
    piece of construction paper on which the picture is glued,
    around the picture.

  • Why is a Teddy Bear called a Teddy Bear? (They’re named
    after President Roosevelt who ordered the mercy killing of a
    wounded young bear he encountered while hunting. Click here
    for more information!)


Discussion-Starters for Older Children

  • Vocabulary to Discuss: Antique; Archaeology; National Park;
    and, Preservation.

  • Ask your students to describe the most beautiful natural site
    that they’ve ever visited. What did they like about this site?
  • You might ask them to prepare a short speech to the
    class, or a group of classmates, on this topic. Students
    who are not speaking could write down one idea that
    they learn from each speech.

  • What are the characteristics of reputable museums and
    universities? Describe what would make a museum or
    university not reputable.
  • Students could prepare brief "news casts" in which they
    stand in front of either a reputable or a not-reputable
    museum/ university explaining why the institution is
    classified as it is.

  • What’s the point of archaeology? Why should we study objects
    from the past? Ask: If you could see and/or touch any one
    object from the past what would you want to see? Why? What
    might you learn from this?
  • Students could answer this in a quick write before a
    class discussion.

  • If possible, have students consider some pictures of the Grand
    Canyon, which can be accessed through this link. Imagine
    having the ability to fly over the Grand Canyon.
  • Students could write poems explaining what it would
    feel like to fly over the Grand Canyon..
100 Years of Archaeology
December 7, 2006
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