The goal of public outreach The focus of the public outreach program of the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic Site is to bring the community information from the material culture recovered from the archaeological investigations conducted at the historic site in 2002-2003, it also includes historical documents related to this site, the previous owners and 19th century Lancaster. The intended audiences are students and teachers from public and private schools in grades K-12 throughout Lancaster County. Since Pennsylvania history is taught in grade 4, a more intensive concentration is placed on conducting outreach workshops for this grade to highlight the local subject matter of Thaddeus Stevens, the Civil War and the Underground Railroad within the Pennsylvania History curriculum. Bringing information about Thaddeus Stevens, Lydia Hamilton Smith and the Underground Railroad to the community, will aid educational curriculums and also provide the impetus for discussion surrounding current local issues about racism, revitalization and preservation. Link To Stevens' papers at LCHS Lancaster Online From this link you can search for articles related to Thaddeus Stevens and the archaeological investigations that took place in Lancaster. Smithsonian Magazine "Digging into Historic Rivalry", An article published in February 2004 in Smithsonian Magazine Photo gallery from the 2002-2003 excavations by Terrie Wilson, Kutztown University Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County

Resources and references I found helpful and useful for conducting outreach workshops and lectures are listed below. Articles from Archaeology and the Public. CRM Volume 18 No. 03 Pennsylvannia State Standards for Curriculm Society for American Archaeology's Educational Resources Alexandria Archaeology Educational Programs and Activities Legacy: Hands on the Past :Archaeology Outreach Program, Texas

Gabriel Piñales from Laura Kanagy's ESL Class from Washington Elementary Approaches to public outreach and workshops The approach to conducting archaeological outreach workshops is threefold. First, schools are sent letters of the proposed outreach workshops on the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic Site through the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County (HPT). These schools then contact HPT or me directly to set up an outreach workshop that generally takes place at the school, or the laboratory at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster where the artifact collection is kept. Secondly, volunteer service is conducted by students. A private school, Lancaster Country Day, contacted me with students who wanted to volunteer at the laboratory to fulfill a service-learning component of their curriculum. In addition, several students from the county volunteered to work on cataloging the artifact collection. Lastly, I was consulted by a group of teachers from Lancaster Country Day School to discuss ways in which archaeology, in particular the work conducted at the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic Site and its material remains, could be used to enhance their Underground Railroad lesson plans and create a cross-curricular theme for the 2004-2005 school year.

Below are links to worksheets and lesson outlines I used in different outreach workshops. There are vocabulary lists as well as worksheets I developed for learning stations used in the laboratory outreach workshop. These worksheets and general vocabulary are set for 4-5th grade levels. Cataloging Worksheet Mending Worksheet Excavation Workshop Vocabulary Researching Worksheet Laboratory Workshop

Letter from Mrs. Good's 4th Grade class Text of letter above: Dear Ms. Kelly, Thank you for taking your time to teach us about archeology. Thank you for showing us the things you found, they were very interesting. Are class learned alot. We especially liked looking at the things up close. We think the toothpast bottle was really neat, but we also liked other things. One thing we learned was that it was popular to move on May 1. Before they moved they thre everything out the window. Then adter they moved they bought new stuff. Thank you again for coming. Sincerely, Morgan, Kathry, and Mrs. Good's 4th grade class

Kelly Britt with Linda Good's fourth grade class at Maytown Elementary Unearthing the findings The 2003-2004 archaeological outreach programs for the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic Site have been exciting and enlightening. The response was overwhelmingly positive from the teachers and the students. The most successful workshops from their points view were conducted at the Franklin and Marshall College laboratory. These workshops were hands-on, and interactive with material culture excavated from the site. During one workshop, a group of students helped me wash and dry artifacts recovered from the site. This provided another "excavation" experience, where students would wash the dirt from the artifacts to discover the object hiding beneath. Another workshop had three stations in which the students could take part in different aspects of the archaeological research process. It was designed to highlight the material culture recovered from the excavations and shed light upon Thaddeus Stevens, Lydia Hamilton Smith and their everyday lives and involvement with the Underground Railroad. In addition, the different archaeological methods used in these workshops such as hands on research, mending, and cataloging illustrated the ins and outs of archaeology as a social science and how these methods can be used to develop curriculum for other subjects such as history and science. Four schools responded to set up a workshop. From these schools, it was generally an individual teacher who responded, due to their knowledge of archaeology and historical architecture. For instance, Leslie Blythe, of Lancaster Country Day School and Linda Good of Maytown Elementary had a history of incorporating archaeology and a fieldtrip to a local excavation into their yearly curriculums. It was clear to me that educators will embrace the opportunity for their students to learn history through archaeology, material culture and historical architecture, when it is easily accessible and adaptable. The next goal is to find innovative ways to make these types of research tools available to educators for their curriculums.

For more information on archaeology outreach workshops in your school, please contact Kelly M. Britt at 717.380.7991 or [email protected].

This outreach program would not have been possible without the help and support from Dr. James A. Delle of Kutztown University, Dr. Mary Ann Levine of Franklin and Marshall College, The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County and the Woodrow Wilson Practicum Grant Program.