News Articles
News Articles

News Articles

End of the 35th Anniversary Year Giving

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR FELLOW TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Your gift of $35 puts an Investigating Shelter curriculum guide into the hands of one teacher, unlocking hands-on archaeology lessons for dozens of students and supporting workshops that bring history to life.

Celebrate Project Archaeology’s 35th anniversary with us by making a one-time or monthly gift of $35. Together, we inspire curiosity, confidence, and engagement as students investigate the past.

 

Dear Project Archaeology friends and colleagues,

Have you ever heard a young person say, “History is boring!”?      As a history teacher and mother of four, I’ve heard this a lot. My own 4th grader’s favorite subjects are math and science, not history. Too often, students disengage from history because they don’t see it as relevant to their lives.

That’s where Project Archaeology changes the dynamic—sparking curiosity and connecting students to the past in meaningful ways.  In Investigating Shelter, students realize that their own homes contain objects that tell stories about who they are. When they compare shelters from the past with their own, they discover both similarities and differences, and suddenly, history feels alive.

Students begin telling stories about their own homes, asking questions about how people lived long ago, and realizing that the objects left behind reveal how people have lived on this land. And soon, every single hand is raised!

This year marks Project Archaeology’s 35th anniversary. Please join me in celebrating this milestone by supporting the continued success of archaeology education—education that makes history relevant, engaging, and transformative for young people.

A gift of $35, either one-time or monthly, to our nonprofit partner, the Institute for Heritage Education, ensures that students continue to experience the excitement of discovering the past through the thrill of archaeological inquiry.

I’ve seen this thrill firsthand. When students work with a large floor map of an archaeological site and corresponding artifact cards, their eyes light up with curiosity. They use math and science to uncover how people lived in the past, gaining confidence as they make observations and inferences.

Teachers across the country see similar transformations. One Montana teacher shared that a Native American student in her class, who had never participated, raised his hand for the first time while she was teaching Project Archaeology’s Investigating a Plains Tipi. The student saw how his classmates were excited by Joe Medicine Crow’s oral histories and were curious to learn about Native American cultures. That student raised his hand for the first time because he realized his voice mattered.

As an Oregon teacher put it: “Students need hands-on activities that help bring connections. By having activities where they talk about their own homes, [we] can help them look at the homes of others and learn about them and the people of the past.”

With gratitude,

Courtney L. Agenten,    Network Director

P.S. Your support also strengthens our donor base, which is critical when applying for grants. Please help us by forwarding this email to others who care about

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PA Featured in American Archaeology Magazine

Project Archaeology was featured in the Fall 2023 issue (Vol. 27, No. 3) of American Archaeology magazine and the article is here for you to read

(Below is a flipbook which is best viewed in fullscreen mode. Tap a corner to turn the pages.) 


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Arch con logo with textWHAT IS THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSERVANCY? 
The Archaeological Conservancy is the only national, nonprofit organization that identifies, acquires, and preserves the most significant archaeological sites in the United States. Since its beginning in 1980, the Conservancy has now preserved nearly 600 sites across the nation. These range in age from the earliest habitation sites in North America to a 19th-century frontier army post.    They are building a national system of archaeological preserves to ensure the survival of our irreplaceable cultural heritage.

Learn more about The Archaeological Conservancy or subscribe to American Archaeology visit thearchcons.org

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Sponsor a Teacher

American History and Culture NEH Grant Award Terminated

SPONSOR A TEACHER - DONATIONS NEEDED

The National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) awarded a "Landmarks of American History and Culture" grant to Project Archaeology, which would host two "Voices of the Ancients Institute" workshops at Southern Utah University this Summer.

Last month, Samantha Kirkley, the Institute Co-Director, received an official communication from NEH, which read: “We regret to inform you that this NEH [Institutes or Landmarks] program will no longer be offered due to DOGE’s termination of the grant award.” This funding termination occurred after the application deadline and after applicants were notified of their acceptance into the Institute.

Sponsor a teacher imageDespite the disappointment of losing the funding, Project Archaeology explored options to offer the Institute. We surveyed the 200 teachers who applied for the Institute and received 113 responses. These responses indicated a strong interest in joining the Institute, even with a significantly increased financial burden for the teachers.

The teachers’ outpouring of support and resilience were inspiring, particularly as Project Archaeology navigated rapidly evolving unprecedented challenges. Our team met and unanimously supported finding a way to offer an in-person experience for as many teachers as possible. We trimmed our budget and started talking to donors immediately.

You can be a donor too! Please consider supporting a teacher attending the Institute this summer. Will you thoughtfully consider giving $25 toward a teacher stipend? Our goal is to support 32 teachers at $600 each to attend, which involves raising a total of $19,200 by June 15, 2025. DONATE NOW! 

With your help, we will offer one session of the Voices of the Ancients Institute, July 13-18 in Cedar City, Utah. Teachers will experience education in ways that they may not expect. The field excursions allow teachers to get dirt under their feet, hone their scientific inquiry skills, and see these cultural landmarks as windows to the past. Indigenous educators are the heart of this program and provide perspectives that help teachers bridge the past to the present.

Quote neh image

Long before the Western hemisphere was approached by Europeans, the Fremont people lived and thrived for over 1,200 years in what is now the state of Utah. Adapting to the desert climate through foraging, agriculture, and the development of community, the ancient Fremont people left behind a rich history. This history is maintained through the preservation of landmarks–such as the world-famous petroglyphs at Parowan Gap– as well as their descendants (Paiute, Ute, Goshute, Navajo, and Shoshone) stories and cultural traditions. The Voices of the Ancients Institute aims to expand  the history of the American West as it is known today, as well as how continued preservation of this culturally rich heritage and landscape can be achieved.

“Sharing the rich history of Utah and the surrounding region with teachers from around the country is the perfect way to usher in the America 250 celebrations,” said Kirkley. “People have lived in this area for thousands of years and their descendants have sacrificed so much to preserve this land

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