School Outreach

We had 8 calls for tours of the ASC during the fall of the 2002-2003 fiscal year from both elementary school and junior college instructors from Cabrillo College. Michael Newland visited the Coyote Valley Elementary school in May to give a presentation about Sir Francis Drake, which got a big write up in the local newspaper.

Read letters from school children...

In July 2002, Michael Newland conducted a two-week summer class on archaeology through the Sonoma State University Excel program, which is geared for 6th through 10th graders. The students were asked to reconstruct information from maps, field notes, and site records for a fictional Native American site, Madazda-13, that had been flooded by the construction of Lake Berryessa. Michael introduced the students to lithic analysis, visual sourcing, groundstone analysis, faunal analysis, site stratigraphy, geomorphology, cartography, ethnology, and many other related disciplines. By the end of the course, the students were completing near college-level projects. On the final day, the ‘Doctors’ gave presentations on their findings in front of their peers, parents, and guests. Several students later participated in a volunteer excavation at Fort Ross (see below).

In June 2003, seven of the ten “Doctors” from Michael Newland’s July 2002 Excel class participated in a weekend volunteer excavation at Fort Ross. All were very excited to be taking part in a real dig, and they did an excellent job of excavating their units. Saturday’s excavation culminated with a great spaghetti dinner, baked apples and ice cream, and the unusual experience of being able to spend the night within the fort. After breakfast on Sunday morning, Mike Newland took everyone on a hike to a nearby rock shelter site, and Jack Meyer ran the kids through a short geomorphology exercise regarding a buried midden in the cove. The volunteers then put in a few more excavation hours and returned home weary but happy. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a very complimentary article on the excavation and the Excel Program a few weeks later.

Read the San Francisco Chronicle's article about kids taking part in the Fort Ross excavation here.

In March 2003, we were contacted by a Pit River tribal member who asked for help in finding a copy of Pit River Teaching Dictionary to which her grandmother had contributed. I have had success in finding a copy of the dictionary (University of Alaska, Fairbanks published it- don’t know why), but have had a harder time getting a copy. We will continue to follow through with her request and hope to have a copy of the Dictionary in her hands in the next few months.

In April 2003, we were contacted by a member of Cotati’s Ner Shalom Jewish Congregation who was seeking information on how to create a portable, temporary site for their cultural fair. Michael Newland and I advised him to try the ‘site in a box’ idea, and helped him with ideas on how to construct them. He was very pleased with the results and has asked if we may be available to help other synagogues do similar projects. He also was interested in having Adrian Praetzellis give a talk to the Congregation on his research into the material culture of Jews in the American West.