Grade 7 students at JEMS participate in mock archeological dig

Grade 7 social studies students at Jordan-Elbridge Middle School picked up their digging tools and headed outdoors for a mock archeological dig on Oct. 15.

Archeology is part of the grade 7 social studies curriculum and students participated in the dig during Amy Giannettino’s class. Teacher Gayle McCabe organized the dig, and her husband, Matthew, also volunteered to help.

Joel Ross, the Cultural Resource Survey Program project director at the New York State Museum in Albany, presented to students to start the activity and showed them artifacts. Students then went outside with Ross and his wife to begin the “dig” under a tent.

Giannettino said the dig reinforced investigation and critical thinking skills.

“They’re learning how to make inferences from different objects,” she said. “We started the year with the question, ‘how do we learn about the past?’”

Preston Murray said he loved participating in the activity.

“This is so much fun. We’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “It’s great finding things.”