Instrumentation and Improvement to the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Archaeobiology Laboratory Training Program

该项目将利用实验室设备开发一个创新的本科生考古生物学培训计划。在考古记录中，关于古环境、饮食、生态和过去人类经济的最佳证据以烧焦的植物遗骸和动物骨骼的形式保存下来。本科生对这些材料的经验以及对其解释的科学分析通常仅限于教科书和讲座。然而，考古生物遗迹提供了丰富的和未开发的潜力，通过教学实验室展示科学。 McCorriston和Tappen在识别和分析花卉和动物群遗骸方面具有互补的技能，通过共同努力和共享设备，有机会进行综合研究和教学。两者都有优秀的本科教学历史。由于这两名PI都是教授考古学的女科学家，她们更有可能接触到那些通常回避科学的本科生。 明尼苏达大学举办了一个令人兴奋的跨学科培训计划，对环境变化（NSF资助的研究和培训小组，“全球变化的古记录”）。这个新的考古生物学实验室将是本科生的额外资源。它将使学生获得教学显微镜，测量站，计算机和比较标本。它将使本科生专注于跨学科科学的问题，因为他们从有关气候变化和人类活动对环境的影响考古材料学习。 我们建议建立在现有的比较收藏，并教科学方法和批判性思维与采样，显微镜，定量，埋藏学，数据管理，模型构建，假设检验，以及其他问题，是常见的研究花卉和动物群的遗骸。

This project will use laboratory equipment to develop an innovative program in undergraduate archaeobiology training. In the archaeological record, the best evidence for paleoenvironments, diet, ecology, and economy of past peoples is preserved in the form of charred plant remains, and animal bones. Undergraduate experience with these materials and the scientific analyses underlying their interpretation is generally confined to textbook and lectures. Archaeobiological remains, however, offer a rich and unexplored potential for demonstrating science through a teaching laboratory. McCorriston and Tappen have complimentary skills in identifying and analyzing floral and faunal remains, and by working together and sharing equipment there is opportunity for integrative research and teaching. Both have a history of excellence in teaching undergraduates. Because both PIs are women scientists teaching in archaeological science, they are more likely to reach those undergraduates who normally avoid the sciences. The University of Minnesota hosts an exciting interdisciplinary training program on environmental change (the NSF-funded Research and Training Group, "Paleorecords of Global Change"). This new Archaeobiology lab will be an additional resource for undergraduates. It will give students access to teaching microscopes, measurement stations, computers, and comparative specimens. It will allow undergraduates to focus on issues in interdisciplinary science as they learn from archaeological materials related to climate change and anthropogenic effects on the environment. We propose to build on existing comparative collections and to teach scientific methods and critical thinking with sampling, microscopy, quantification, taphonomy, data management, model building, hypothesis testing, and other issues that are common in research of both floral and faunal remains.