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

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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.