Teachers

Subject and Grade: Developed for 4th and 7th grade Social Studies students in 2003. These lessons are no longer applicable modern (2023) TEKS.

Author: Dr. Mary S. Black (2003)

Overview: This is a five-lesson unit plan.

Lesson 1 – Living in the Oak Woodland: This lessons introduces the archeology and early people of the Jewett Mine area in East Central Texas.

Lesson 2 – Ecoregions Map: Students read and interpret a map of ecoregions of Central and East Texas.

Lesson 3 – Climbing up the Hill: Students interpret a contour elevation map by measuring and drawing a chart that illustrates meters of elevation above sea level and distance in meters horizontally from the small oak tree.

Lesson 4 – Prehistoric Puzzle: Students pretend they are archeologists reassembling an ancient pot. They try to learn about ancient people who made the pot based on incomplete information, simulating the real experience of archeologists in the laboratory. As they get more puzzle pieces, they learn more about the people. Without all the pieces, it is impossible to learn everything, however. This is often what archeologists face when ancient artifacts such as potsherds or stone tools have been taken from the land where they belonged.

Lesson 5 – Timeline for the Jewett Mine People: Students construct an illustrated timeline showing when people lived at the McGuire's Garden site at Jewett Mine (1260-1410 A.D.), as well as other world events during the time period from 1000 to 1603 A.D.

TEKS: Since the initial development of this unit plan, Social Studies TEKS have changed and are no longer relevant to these lessons. However, the lessons may be adapted or used as-is for non-TEKS-based learning.

Activities and Procedures: See attached unit plan for lesson details.