Teacher's Guide for DIG ^TM Scoop on Poop

Objective:

To discover why children think that waste would be an interesting thing for an archaeologist to study and what they think archaeologist can learn from studying waste. Hopefully this would also serve as a way to overcome the "gross-out" factor that may accompany this topic for some students.

Materials:

Paper, pen or pencil

Process:

Have each student (or divide into discussion groups if this is more appropriate for your classroom environment) write a list of what they think could possibly be learned from studying waste. Encourage them to be creative and not just "disgusting." Give students about 10 minutes, or more if they are in groups, to formulate this list.

When students have completed their lists, have either the individual, or a representative of the group, read their list and discuss why each item was included on the list. In addition to getting the students to think about the topic, this will accustom them to talking about a topic that may seem inappropriate or uncomfortable.

Discussion Topics:

1. Discuss the things that archaeologists actually do learn from studying human waste - evidence of ancient diets, farming practices, and disease. Compare that knowledge learned from reading the magazine to the students' earlier lists.
2. Discuss the variety of the ancient and more modern historical diets. Examples are given in the articles and many websites available concerning ancient food, including http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Greeklife.html (also includes ancient Rome and Egypt) and www1.enloe.wake.k12.nc.us/enloe/johnson/Egypt4/newandimproved. There are many more sites on this topic.
3. Compare the Indus Valley houses of 3000 - 1500 B.C. (p. 14) to those of Pompeii ca. A.D. 79 (p. 17).
   • How are the similar and how are they different?
   • What does this tell us about how people lived? Climate? Sanitation? Cooking?
   This is really what archaeology is about - trying to figure out how people of the past lived.
4. What do people's attitudes about bathrooms, bathing, human waste, etc. say about a culture? Are they embarrassed about toilets and bathrooms and how does this affect where they put them in their houses or in public?
5. Compare they ways the ancient Romans got and used water to all the different ways water comes to modern Americans and how many ways we use it every day. Have students make a list of all the different ways they use water every day.

Additional Activity:

Objective:

To have students visualize the breadth of geography the articles in the issue deal with and understand in a concrete way that archaeology is a field that is truly a science of the whole world. Places should include at least: Crete, the American Southwest, Kansas, the Arctic Circle, the Indus Valley, Italy, China. Other sites from the articles, "Stones and Bones," etc. could be added. Another excellent exercise of this type is to create a timeline of all the cultures discussed in this issue of the magazine. This allows students to see clearly that archaeologists study all different cultures from thousands of years ago to almost the modern day. This exercise also helps to stress the commonality of human experience over time and space.

Material:

a large world map

Process:

Locate on a map all of the places mentioned in the feature articles.

Additional Activity:

Materials:

pen and paper
Or, for a more involved project: cardboard, colored paper, glue, etc. to make a model.

Process:

Have students draw or make a model of their ideal bathroom. Drawings and / or models should included thought about where the water for the bathroom comes from and where it goes when it is drained or flushed. After creating the drawing or model, students should write a short essay about why they made their model bathroom the way they did., what influenced their choices, etc.

BASIC VOCABULARY LIST

Aqueduct:	man-made structures used to conduct a water stream across a hollow or valley
Cistern:	tanks that collect, cool and store water for future use
Coprolite:	the fossilized excrement of animals
Fossil (fossilized):	remnant, impression, or trace of an animal or plant of a past geologic age that has been preserved in the Earth's crust
Minoan:	Bronze Age civilization of Crete that flourished from about 3000 B.C. to about 1100 B.C.
Parasite:	an animal or plant living in or on an organism of another species (its host), obtaining from the host part or all of its nutrients
Pollen:	the microspores of seed-producing plants; used for fertilization

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Updated: 3/17/10 04:00 pm
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