Teaching Resource

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology (MUA) is pleased to offer several resources for classroom teachers. This page provides information on our "Holding History in Your Hand" kit which includes a written curriculum presenting the six steps of the archaeological process, replicas of artifacts for examination, videos, a sidescan sonar slideshow, bookmarks, and other activities for further exploration. This opportunity is free to all classroom teachers (there is a small fee to help cover shipping and packaging. Contact the MUA for more details at kurt@themua.org). The "Artifact Analysis" program uses a hands-on exercise to teach the students how underwater archaeologists learn about people by studying the things they left behind. Through a class discussion of their observations students learn the importance of provenience, context, and conservation. They will learn to make that important step from discussing things to discussing people.

This page contains the newest documents not included on the original CD rom from the kit (see light blue column above) as well as an online version of our age specific learning paths (included in the kit as PDFs). Teachers can assign the appropriate age group learning path to the students and instruct them to click on the path titles shown below. A narrow window will open that contains the path the students are to follow. Students should read the instructions and questions and then click the thumbnail images going from top to bottom. The thumbnails will take the student to specific readings from the MUA site that will help them answer the questions. When they have completed the readings for one question they can move to the next question and its associated readings.

Learning Paths

Select the appropriate learning path to see questions and the path through the MUA that will help you find the answers.

Teachers may consider creating their own assignments by having students navigate our Worldwide Underwater Site Map which contains links to underwater projects all over the world and not just those included in the MUA. This provides a safe way for students to see what's online without having to do a search that might bring back questionable results. Each link on the map will take them to that particular project's website. In this way students can easily find projects from various areas of the planet. Our traditional links page includes websites that are not project specific such as graduate college programs, avocationals groups and more. This provides another view of the field of underwater archaeology.

Another resource is the MUA News page , providing a listing of current and past articles in the press covering topics related to underwater archaeology. Taken together these resources can provide numerous ways for students of various age groups to explore the field of underwater archaeology.