Surviving Climate Change: Field Methods in Midwest Archaeology

Monday, May 6 - Friday, June 21 2013 FIRST HALF SUMMER SEMESTER

The main objective of Surviving Climate Change is to empower students with an understanding of interdisciplinary field research on climate change. Students will develop the skills needed to conduct archaeological and paleontological excavations. Additionally, the course will provide students with an opportunity to gain an integrated multidisciplinary approach to climate change research, inclusive of anthropology, education, geology, paleontology, and Quaternary science.

The course will create a unique opportunity to help forge key relationships and partnerships, especially between UC, the Cincinnati Museum Center, the Kentucky State Parks, and the Kentucky Geological Survey.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Competently excavate paleontological and archaeological remains.
• Use common methods for quantifying biological remains.
• Discuss and interpret climate change data obtained from field and laboratory work. Analyze data using statistical software.
• Curate fossil material for museum collections.
• Be able to explain how species respond to climate change.

15 ANTH 4039 SURVIVING CLIMATE CHANGE

15 ANTH 8039 ADVANCED FIELD METHODS IN MIDWEST ARCHAEOLOGY

6 Credit Hours

Monday, May 6 - Friday, June 21 2013

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 8:00 AM–2:00 PM

Big Bone Lick State Park

This new and innovative course focuses on human and non-human species (plant and animal) response to climate change and how paleoenvironmental data are recovered in the field, studied in the laboratory and museum, and presented in public venues. This class will be a 100% hands-on, learn-by-doing, field experience. Surviving Climate Change will use a pedagogical approach that incorporates collaborative methods, and transformative solution-oriented outcomes by bringing together students and faculty from multiple disciplines. Specifically, Surviving Climate Change will be a course that uses interdisciplinary field methods. The course will introduce students to archaeological, paleoenvironmental, paleontological, and other Quaternary science field techniques, outlining the benefits of using interdisciplinary methods to interpret species responses to climate change. Students will participate in the survey and excavation of Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, which contains the remains of plants and animals that survived the last major episode of rapid and profound global climate change. Students will be involved in all phases of field excavation, trained in laboratory and museum curation processing, and public education. Students will be encouraged to critically examine how interdisciplinary knowledge about species response to climate change is constructed and expressed. During the summer students will be involved in all phases of field excavation, trained in lab processing, and encouraged to critically examine how archaeological and paleontological knowledge is constructed and expressed. The course focuses on human and non-human adaptation to climate change, and how such contexts are excavated, but the course also provides a solid introduction to how archaeological and paleontological sites are excavated and how archaeologists and paleontologists investigate and interpret prehistory.