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

本项目将利用实验室设备开发一个创新的本科考古训练方案。在考古记录中，关于古人类的古环境、饮食、生态和经济的最好证据是以烧焦的植物遗骸和动物骨骼的形式保存下来的。本科生对这些材料的了解以及对其解释所依据的科学分析通常局限于教科书和讲座。然而，考古生物遗迹为通过教学实验室展示科学提供了丰富而未开发的潜力。麦考里斯顿和塔彭在识别和分析植物和动物遗骸方面有互补的技能，通过合作和共享设备，有机会进行综合研究和教学。这两所大学在教授本科生方面都有着卓越的历史。因为两位pi都是教授考古科学的女科学家，她们更有可能接触到那些通常不愿接触科学的本科生。明尼苏达大学主持了一个令人兴奋的环境变化跨学科培训项目（由美国国家科学基金会资助的研究和培训小组，“全球变化的古记录”）。这个新的考古学实验室将成为本科生的额外资源。它将使学生有机会使用教学显微镜、测量站、计算机和比较标本。它将使本科生在从与气候变化和人为对环境影响有关的考古材料中学习时，专注于跨学科科学问题。我们建议以现有的比较收藏为基础，通过采样、显微镜、定量、地层学、数据管理、模型建立、假设检验和其他在植物和动物遗骸研究中常见的问题，教授科学方法和批判性思维。

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.