Archaeology in K-12 and undergraduate classrooms can be used to promote cultural awareness and sensitivity, provide a means of critical thinking, promote cultural awareness and sensitivity, create an awareness of archaeological research, as well as promoting the stewardship of the past. Education can be found in many forms including field trips to a museum or an archaeological site, through an archaeology field school and student internships, teacher workshops, pamphlets, archaeology fairs, and presentations to the public.

One way that students learn about the past archaeology is through an archaeological field school. At the NYS Museum-University at Albany field school, student learn about the process of archaeology as well as how to curate materials for future use. At the end of the field school, students are encouraged to share the results with visitors at the site through a “public day”.  Here students discuss what was found at the site and provide advocacy for the discipline. Students also discuss the ethics in archaeology and which we, as archaeologists, just don’t dig anywhere.  

During the summer we also do a Teacher’s Workshop in Archaeology. Here we discuss the types of data that archaeologists collect, and the methods used to recover this data. An overview of New York archaeological history is presented along with a session on object-based learning and a tour of museum’s holdings. The session wraps up with a discussion of using archaeology in the classroom.  

The journal Advances in Archaeological Practice has helped to promote similar activities in public education. These include Designing and Assessing Public Education Programs in Archaeology (2016) and Touching the Past to Learn about the Past (2020). Both issues discuss how we how archaeological education can be disseminate to the public and the benefits/challenges of these programs.  

Other articles including Connecting Native Students to STEM Research Using Virtual Archaeology A Case Study from the Water Heritage Anthropological Project (2021) and Creating Collaboration Learning Opportunities for Indigenous Youth with Archaeology-Based Environmental Education (2017) discuss how Native groups may be participants in excavating the past. Finally, Undergraduate Teaching and Assassin’s Creed: discussing Archaeology with Digital Games (2021) discusses how digital games can be used to learn about the past.