Students will get a touch of history

STEVEN LANE/The Columbian Century-old artifacts such as this that were recovered from downtown Vancouver will provide a hands-on history project offered through the Clark County Historical Museum.

The Clark County Historical Museum is putting together a partnership to bring hands-on history to local students in grades four through 12.

It will provide a glimpse of regional history between 1870 and 1920. It will feature material excavated during construction of the Vancouver Convention Center and the Hilton Vancouver Washington.

Artifacts include china, toys, buttons and other examples of everyday life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The museum is accepting applications for two teachers who will partner with the museum and a community archaeologist on the project.

“This is a special project because it will put local history, literally, in the palm of kids’ hands,” said Susan Tissot, the museum’s executive director.

“Archaeological findings are not usually available for hands-on education. So this is a rare opportunity to develop archaeological kits that will be used in the classroom.”

The material was excavated by Applied Archaeological Research, a Portland-based firm that was called in when century-old artifacts were uncovered by construction crews.

There was plenty of material to go around, said Bill Roulette, president of Applied Archaeological Research.

“We had 300 boxes, somewhere around 40,000 artifacts,” Roulette said. “We analyzed maybe a quarter of that, and made ready to curate maybe another quarter.”

That leaves about 20,000 available to the museum.

The curriculum fits into state assessment requirements for history and civics. The project is funded by a $10,000 grant from the state’s Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

Interested teachers should contact the museum for an application form, which must be returned by Friday.

Tom Vogt is at 360-735-4558 or tom.vogt@columbian.com.