Exploring Our Past: Changing Human Adaptations in the Upper Mississippi River Valley

FAIN: ES-50273-09

University of Wisconsin, La Crosse (La Crosse, WI 54601-3742)
James L. Theler (Project Director: March 2009 to June 2011)

A three-week school teacher summer institute for twenty-five participants on archaeological theory and methods as applied to the prehistory of the Upper Mississippi River Valley.

The proposed Institute will provide 25 K-12 teachers with three weeks of intense, guided exploration of changing cultural adaptations to the Upper Mississippi Valley over nearly fourteen millennia, and how we learn about such cultures through archaeology. The region's archaeological record tells a fascinating story and also provides an ideal vehicle for exploring how archaeologists move from potsherds to insights into how people have lived, adapted to their surroundings, and changed through time. Participants will learn about the nature of the archaeological record through actual excavation and laboratory work and discussion of how we can derive information from cultural remains. They will also complete individual classroom-implementation projects, and will emerge with content knowledge applicable to a wide range of grade levels, subject areas, geographic regions, and time periods.