FLEMING COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A central Kentucky high school has dug up a new program to help keep students engaged.
The interdisciplinary program is designed to help students develop skills in six different subjects, which has become a discovery of a lifetime for the students of Fleming County High School as they uncover hidden artifacts from thousands of years ago.
"This could be somewhere where a tribe has lived or someone came through and just their normal daily use of objects," said Jaycee Robinson, a high school freshman and the dig's principal investigator. "So far we've found bones, baskets, pots, some medal rods, geos, feathers just a bunch of stuff."
David Litteral, the Fleming County High School social studies teacher, is in charge of the dig.
"Based on a hypothetical area that something happened we're excavating it and the students are learning about geography, but they're acting as archaeologists."
It all starts in the social studies class when students begin the dig and uncover the artifacts.
From there, "we're gonna take it to the science department. They're gonna do simulated DNA testing, simulated radio carbon dating," describes Litteral. "Our English departments gonna help them write a paper on exactly what they found. And our math department is using our dimensions of the dig and how much Earth they've moved to teach the students how to do linear equations."
But it doesn't stop there. Students who want to be painters must analyze the data and the landscape where the dig took place. The students will then have to paint what they believe it would have looked like at that time to create a more visual representation of the scene that may have taken place.
Aside from the cool artifacts, it's also helped students engage more in their studies. Litteral says this program helps students feel motivated in school and has reduced missed classes.
"It's made me more excited to be able to come to the classroom. We come out here and dig every day and it makes me look forward to coming to school," explains Robinson. "This is a really fun process and if any other schools have a chance to do this I think they should try it because it just made us learn more about archaeologists and what they do and how hard their job is too."
"Help them to develop transferable skills," said Litteral. "Obviously shaking that dirt over there is not a transferable skill but it helps them to understand the importance of looking for details. So they're going to be more detailed oriented."
