ASOR Annual Meeting
Workshop registration

Presenter Biographies

Beverly Chiarulli is an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and director of the IUP Archaeological Research Center. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology / archaeology from Southern Methodist University, where her dissertation research was on the lithic artifacts from Cerros, Belize. She has worked on and supervised many archaeological excavations in the US and Belize. She has also been actively involved in developing lesson plans and curriculum in archaeology for teachers, including the Project Archaeology Pennsylvania book, which is tied to state and national teaching standards. Dr. Chiarulli served as the Chair of the Society for American Archaeology Public Education Committee from 2001-2004 and is a reviewer for the SAA project "Making Archaeology Relevant for the 21st Century."

Kimberley Connors is the Educational Programming Coordinator at the Semitic Museum at Harvard University. A veteran of numerous excavations in the Near East and US, she most recently directed an historic excavation in New Hampshire. As the founder of Archaeology Education Outreach, she has dug with hundreds of students in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as providing professional development workshops for educators from around the country. Kimberley was selected as a 2005 Creative Teaching Partner by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is serving her first year as a member of the Educational Outreach Committee of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Ellen Dailey Bedell has a Ph.D. in Egyptology from Brandeis University and is Head of the History Department at The Ellis School, an independent college preparatory school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is familiar with archaeological methodology and has worked on several archaeological sites, most recently as a square supervisor at Tall al-'Umayri in Jordan. She has taught numerous archaeology workshops for teachers and has developed curriculum and lesson plans, including a chapter on writing in hieroglyphs for the revised Pennsylvania Archaeological Council's archaeology curriculum. Dr. Bedell has developed a simulated archaeological dig and two online archaeology projects for her ninth grade class. She co-authored a chapter on simulated digs with Dr. Chiarulli for the SAA's publication, The Archaeology Education Handbook. For several years she has been a member of the Educational Outreach Committee of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Elizabeth Perry is a writer and new media artist working at The Ellis School, where she helps teachers integrate technology into a K-12 curriculum, and teaches classes in digital media. She is a founding editor of the award-winning Pittsburgh Signs Project, an online public art project documenting the visual landscape of western Pennsylvania (www.pittsburghsigns.org). Think Cool Thoughts, a children's book she has written, was published in 2005 by Clarion Books. Her formal background includes a BA in English from Yale, and an MFA in fiction writing and PhD in cultural and critical studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Her sketchbook journal may be found at www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering.

A workshop designed for elementary and high school teachers, focusing on methods for teaching students about Near Eastern archaeology.

Schedule

9:00 - 10:00am    Beverly Chiarulli (2 lessons)
This time slot will include a brief introduction of all the presenters. Beverly will ask the teachers to introduce themselves as part of the first lesson.
"Why is the Past Important": This is a hands-on activity in which teachers connect to their own past through an artifact that has meaning within their family. It is a good way to help students see artifacts as messengers from the past. Dr. Chiarulli will also present a chapter from the Project Archaeology Pennsylvania book and give teachers a CD of all the lessons in this book. She will demonstrate how this book can be used in the classroom by presenting one of the general chapters on anthropology/archaeology. The book also contains chapters on the archaeology of Pennsylvania and comparative lesson on Egyptian hieroglyphs and Maya glyphs. All of the lessons in this book are tied to specific Pennsylvania teaching standards.

10:00 - 10:15am   Break with refreshments

10:15 - 11:00am    Kimberley Connors (1 lesson, PowerPoint)
"Kids Dig It." This presentation outlines how to conduct a simulated archaeological dig in a scientific way. Stressing proper field and research methods, students learn that archaeology is not a treasure hunt, but a study of past cultures. Tips on artifacts, strategies for specific grade levels, assessment, and teaching archaeology across the curriculum, will be discussed. Lesson plans and information on resources are provided to participants..

11:00am - 12:00pm    Ellen Bedell and Elizabeth Perry (2 lessons)
Ellen Bedell and Elizabeth Perry ave collaborated on two online archaeology projects, the "Uluburun Shipwreck" project and the new "Four-room House" project. They will demonstrate how to use these sites in the classroom. Both sites provide authentic learning experiences for students and allow students to analyze archaeological data to answer a series of research questions. Students hone their critical thinking skills by going through the same process as archaeologists in analyzing data from a Late Bronze Age shipwreck and an Early Iron Age dwelling. The shipwreck site teaches them about historical archaeology and the house site teaches them about anthropological archaeology. The new "Four-room House" site is directly connected to an ASOR-affiliated excavation in Jordan and shows how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of daily life in the ancient Near East. Dr. Bedell and Dr. Perry will provide lesson plans and a curriculum guide for each of these projects.

1:00-5:00pm, Lecture Program, "Near Eastern Archaeology Tales from the Tells: The Adventure Continues"
Distinguished presenters, including several UPenn graduates with stories of their own to tell, will talk about Jerusalem, Iraq, ossuaries, and women in medieval Islam. Review the complete program.

Registration

NEW: use a credit card and our online registration form before Nov. 11th. To register after that date, or for more information please contact Ellen Bedell at <bedelle@theellisschool.org> or tel (412) 661-5992.

Location

Morning programs (9am to 12pm) will be in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and afternoon lectures (1 to 5pm) will be held in Rainey Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
3260 South St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Other Events

Teachers are welcome to attend an evening lecture on Thursday, November 17th on "Fakes and Forgeries in the Ancient World" at the Hyatt Penn's Landing Hotel. This public forum will feature expert archaeologists, FBI officers, and journalists who have encountered the problems of fakes and forgeries of archaeological objects from a variety of different perspectives.

7:00-8:30pm, Grand Ballroom ABC
Hyatt Penn's Landing
201 So. Columbus Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
hotel's web site.