Causes: Arts & Culture, Humanities

Mission: The mission of the San Diego Archaeological Center is to preserve archaeological collections and promote their educational, scientific and cultural use to benefit a diverse public.

Geographic areas served: San Diego County

Programs:

Project Archaeology (PA) is an educational program geared primarily for third through seventh graders in formal and informal venues. PA gives students a basic understanding of how archaeology works and teaches them to respect and protect our nation’s rich cultural heritage. PA is an interdisciplinary and cost effective, program, meeting and exceeding many of the state requirements for student educational content in history and social science, English and language, mathematics, life and earth science and visual and performing arts. During each program, students excavate an assemblage of artifacts from our sand-filled “dig bins” and as a team, analyze the collections, pose and test hypotheses about the meaning and use of the collection and relate a story of what happened at the site. A significant amount of time is spent advocating the protection of historical and archaeological sits, as “pot-hunting” is an increasingly common problem in the Western states.