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Program Seminars
Native American History and European Settlement
Native American History &
European Settlement is one of four core content areas of the “Roots of a
Nation” Teaching American History initiative. The “Roots of a Nation”
initiative offers five unique seminars in this content area, including:
Life & Society in the Chesapeake Tidewater: An Historical &
Archaeological Journey
2011-12 Dates: Monday -
Friday, July 23-27, 2012
Format: Five-Day Residential Seminar
Key Locations: Historic Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg
Program Partner: Washington College Center for the Environment &
Society
Lead Instructors: Dr. John Seidel, Director, Center for the
Environment & Society
Elizabeth A. Seidel, Director, Washington College Public Archaeology
Lab
CPD Credits: 3
Stipend: $500
In this
innovative seminar teachers will join professional archaeologists
and historians on a journey to examine Native American settlement in
the Chesapeake region at the period of first contact with Europeans,
as well as English settlement through the Colonial period. The
seminar will be based around site visits to Jamestown and Colonial
Williamsburg. Activities will include lectures, films, classroom
discussions, conversations with historians, digs with
archaeologists, research assignments in the historic area of
Williamsburg, and lesson plan development workshops. Participants
will see how the early English settlers were ill-prepared for life
in the New World and had to depend on the thriving and complex
Native societies of the region. After surviving a series of
disasters and near-catastrophes, the settlers eventually settled on
a lucrative staple crop - tobacco. While ensuring the ultimate
success of the colony, the peculiar demands of this crop set in
motion a series of changes
and a socio-economic evolution that transformed Tidewater society.
Together, these developments gave society and the landscape a
distinctive character, the consequences of which are still with us
today. This study tour is based on the highly successful “History
and Sense of Place” journey implemented by Washington College’s
Center for Environment and Society in its new Chesapeake Semester
program (http://chesapeake-semester.washcoll.edu/). Central themes
of the seminar will include: 1) human-environment relationships, 2)
settling the landscape, 3) the emergence of a staple crop and
distinctive economy, 4) labor and slavery, 5) the specific ways in
which environment, technology, and culture shaped a distinctive
Tidewater society, and 6) the ways in which many of these
distinctive characteristics remain with us today.
Artifacts Speak Louder Than Words - Interpreting Documents, Objects, &
Archaeology
2011-12 Dates: Monday & Tuesday, June 25-26, 2012
Format: Two-Day Workshop (Lodging Provided if Necessary)
Key Locations: Washington College
Archaeology Lab/Regional Archaeological Excavation Site (TBA)
Program Partner: Washington College Center for the Environment &
Society
Lead Educators: Dr. John Seidel, Director, Center for the
Environment & Society
Elizabeth A. Seidel, Director, Washington College Public Archaeology
Lab
CPD Credits: 1
Stipend: $200
In
this two-day program, teachers will explore the diverse forms of
evidence that help historians and archaeologists understand the
Colonial past. On day one, participants will spend time at the
Washington College Public Archaeology Lab and be introduced to the
different forms of evidence used to study the past. These items will
include primary documents gathered through archival research,
artifacts recovered by Washington College archaeologists, and
analytical results derived in the laboratory. In the evening,
teachers will watch the documentary film, Search for a Century,
which chronicles the archaeological discoveries at Martin’s Hundred
and Wolstenholme Towne, a 17th century settlement on the James
River. The second day of the course will see participants travel to
an archaeological site where they will work alongside archaeologists
excavating historic remains. Overnight accommodations in
Chestertown will be provided for participants traveling too far a
distance. Box lunches, dinner on day one, and transportation to the
archaeological site will be provided.
Mapping the Course for a New Nation – Captain John Smith’s Chesapeake
Voyages
2011-12 Dates: Thursday
& Friday, August 2 & 3, 2012
Format: Two-Day Workshop (Lodging Provided if Necessary)
Location: Chestertown, MD
Program Partner: Sultana Projects, Inc.
Lead Educators: Chris Cerino, Vice President, Sultana Projects
Pat Robeson and Sari Bennett, Maryland Geographic Alliance
CPD Credits: 1
Stipend: $200
On June 2, 1608, Captain John
Smith and 14 English settlers set out in a small open boat on one of
the most important voyages of exploration in American History.
Smith’s expedition spent three months exploring the Chesapeake Bay,
venturing into regions that would become Maryland, Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. In 1612, Smith
used maps and sketches from his voyage to create the first accurate
map of the region. This map served as the blueprint for English
settlement in the “New World,” and forever altered the course of
American History.
In this workshop, teachers use the
story of Smith’s 1608 expedition to study the broader themes of
early European settlement and Native American cultures of the
Chesapeake region. Teachers will spend the first day in the
classroom, reading from Smith’s journals and participating in
discussions with historians to learn about the Chesapeake Bay in the
17th century. On the second day, participants venture onto the
water in canoes and kayaks to explore portions of the Bay first
recorded by Smith four centuries ago. During this voyage, Sultana
Projects’ staff members will identify wetland plants, fish species,
and mammals that were important to the indigenous people of the
Chesapeake region. The session concludes with a lesson plan
workshop where teachers brainstorm ideas for incorporating what they
have learned into the classroom setting.
So
Easy a Caveman Can Do It - Lessons from Experimental Archaeology
2011-12 Dates: Saturday,
April 7, 2012
Format: One-Day Seminar
Location: Washington College
Program Partner: Washington College Center for the Environment &
Society
Lead Instructors: Dr. John Seidel, Director, Center for the
Environment & Society
Prof. Bill Schindler
Elizabeth A. Seidel, Director, Washington College Public Archaeology
Lab
Stipend: $100
For the
prehistoric period, archaeology is the primary source of information
about how people lived. In addition to excavating sites,
archaeologists spend much of their time examining how different
artifacts were produced and used by ancient peoples. This, in turn,
sheds light on the accuracy of their interpretations and can
sometimes make them rethink their initial theories. This one-day
seminar and hands-on workshop on Native American technologies will
explore the ways in which American Indians made tools, nets, pottery
and other items for use in everyday life. Participants will gain an
understanding of how materials such as stone, bone, clay, and fibers
were gathered, processed and used to produce items necessary for
survival. They will then step into the shoes of an experimental
archaeologist as they try their hand at replicating some of these
ancient technologies. Participants will have a chance to put their
finished materials to the test.
Through the Eyes of John Smith - Land, Water & Changing Landscapes
2011-12 Dates: Saturday,
April 28, 2012
Format: One-Day Seminar
Location: Onboard the research vessel, CALLINECTES, on the Chester
River
Program Partner: Washington College Center for the Environment &
Society
Lead Instructors: Dr. John Seidel, Director, Center for the
Environment & Society
Elizabeth A. Seidel, Director, Washington College Public Archaeology
Lab
Stipend: $100
What did Captain John
Smith see when he left Jamestown in 1608 and set out on a three month
voyage to “explore” the Chesapeake Bay? How did Smith’s observations
of the region’s natural resources influence the future settlement of
America and how did that settlement, and four hundred years of
subsequent human activity, alter and change the landscapes that
Smith encountered? Questions such as these will be the focus of a
one-day voyage on the historic Chester River aboard Washington
College’s 46-ft research vessel, CALLINECTES. Using archaeological
evidence, early historical accounts, and present day vistas,
participants will explore and examine the ever changing landscape of
the Tidewater Chesapeake. The voyage will traverse over 30 miles of
shoreline and historic sites on the Chester River, including
well-preserved natural landscapes, documented Native American and
early 17th century European settlements, preserved 18th century
plantations, and ending at the
Custom House in the historic port of Chestertown.
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