Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
| This was our second trip for one of the Johns Hopkins kids programs (Philadelphia was last month). This time we went to St. Leonard, Maryland on the shores of the Patuxent River to visit the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and learn about Archaeology and what Archaeologists do. |
| We happened to be in the group which went to the active dig site first. We all got to dig up a bucket of soil and sift through it see what we could find. Our sifting group found three nails, a tack, several brick pieces, oyster shells and parts of a clay pipe. |
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| Our next stop was the conservation lab. We learned about how to get the water out of water-logged wooden artifacts without damaging them (replace the water with glycol and then freeze dry it). And we learned that you have be careful and quick to preserve cannon and other metal artifacts recovered from the ocean. |
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| The cool demonstration was electrolysis to clean tarnished silver (and then using a stink bomb to re-tarnish the silver for the next group of students). |
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| In our after lunch session, we learned about recovering seeds, and what you can learn from them. The kids used a water bath to float the seeds out of the dirt for closer inspection. |
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| With the rainy weather earlier in the week, the organizers recommended rain boots for the mud. This was a an excellent activity for boots. |
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| We shifted down to another table laid out with potsherds to try to piece together. |
| Everyone understood that if the bottom of the plate or bowl said it was microwave safe, it could only be so old. The nice docent pointed out that anyone could pick up pottery or china at yard sale and break it up to do more of the puzzle work at home. I think we'll pass, fun though it was. |
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| Our final stop was the Indian Village. Here the docent talked about life in a Native American village of the period and how archaeologists piece together stories by the context in which they find the artifacts. |
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| The docent was really good about asking questions but only rarely providing answers, forcing the kids to figure things out. It took a while for them to catch on to how to drill through bone with stone drill bit and bow. I don't think I was the only parent biting my tongue as they got so close but not quite there. |
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| The final demonstration was fire starting. With a bit of help, they managed to get a fire going pretty quickly. It was another fun trip and another win for the program. |
Vacation notes:
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