Empowering Global Citizens

www.archaeological.org/about/whoweare), which is based out of Boston
University but also has a center in New York City. Students will need to
keep an archaeological notebook (a composition book or other notebook)
for record keeping in this unit and throughout the year.

Activity 4.1.1

Time Capsules

In this activity, students create time capsules that include artifacts that they
would want archaeologists to find many years from now and clues about
themselves (e.g., clues about their likes, dislikes, family structure, values,
and more). The objects in their time capsule should be placed in a container,
and the outside of the container should be decorated to depict their daily
life. For containers, consider using small plastic bins, boxes, or coffee cans.
(Note that the students should not bring items of value to school. They can
take a picture of the items or draw a picture of them to include in their box
instead.)

Students should exchange their time capsules with one another. (The teach—
er should manage this so that the students do not know whose time capsule
they receive). Without explaining the time capsules to one another, students
should take careful notes and create drawings about them and then come
to their own conclusions about the importance and meaning of the ob—
jects. They should then share their observations with a partner. Finally, they
should try to figure out Whose time capsule they have.

Students should get into larger groups (at least groups of six to eight stu—
dents, although if the groups are larger, the students will have more artifacts
to work with) and combine the artifacts from all of the groups. Students
should categorize the objects by theme and summarize the contents of the
entire group. They should make generalizations about the modern US cul—
ture using the artifacts of the group.

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