Students Really Dig Learning

News flash: the tomb of Alexander the Great may have just been discovered near Kellogg.

OK, well, maybe not. But the sixth graders who’ve unearthed the plastic bones are as elated as any successful archaeologist. Never mind the drizzle that’s persisted for most of the week.

Clusters of students confer under blue tarps draped from trees. Others scrape mud from artifacts discovered in one of 12 pits. A boy in a hard hat descends into an 8-foot-deep beehive tomb with the help of a rope.

“Six hours in the mud has dampened their clothing, but not their spirits,” says Kellogg Middle School teacher David Dose, 35, who came up with the idea of the mock archeological dig about five years ago.

Dose conducted the first digs at a site up Pine Creek. With the help of grants and donations from local businesses and others, about $10,000 worth of improvements were made at that location, which was thought to be permanent.

Until last summer.

It didn’t take an archeologist to figure out what had happened.

“It looks like some vandals had quite a party,” said Dose, who was heartsick to discover cement walls knocked over and wooden structures used for firewood. The vandals drove four-wheel-drive rigs over the tops of mock tombs until they caved in and tore up handmade bridges. Beer bottles littered the smashed remains of the site.

Such a setback was discouraging, to say the least. But when parents of former student Cari Copeland offered the school a new, more secure site, Dose decided to carry on.

Features of the new site include a 15-foot tunnel (buried culvert) to an 8-by-8 tomb, 12 pits - digging sites - and the vertical beehive tomb. Dose plans to add additional improvements over the coming year. To make all the effort worthwhile, the use of the site may be offered to other school districts.

A student rushes up. “Guess what, we found a prison!”

“How do you know?” Dose asks the boy, 12-year-old Kyle McEnany.

McEnany has his facts well in mind. “Because we found three swords, two shields, and six cut-off hands.”

Across a sodden meadow, another group of students believes they’ve found a bathhouse.

“We found an urn with a note in Greek telling the price of towels and a shave,” explains Alisha Bush, 11.

“I translated. I’ve already memorized the Greek alphabet,” adds 12-year-old Adam Weingart proudly.

Each of the students has a specialty. Some are linguists, some are draftsmen, others are surveyors. All of them have been studying Greek and Roman civilizations. The dig is the culmination of three weeks of study and preparation. When it’s over, they’ll go back and compare findings to draw conclusions.

“We’re trying to decide if it really is the lost city of Baloneesia,” says Amber Otto, 11. “We think it is, because they found Alexander the Great back there.”

The budding archeologists will be graded on how much they bring up, how accurately they can determine names and dates, and how plausibly they can explain what they’ve found.

More than 120 sixth graders will explore the area over the course of a week, in three groups. Between digs, Dose and his helpers return to the site to re-bury everything. It’s a labor-intensive process, but according to Dose, it’s worth it.

“Real-world experience is motivational. The ones who studied are on top of it; the ones who didn’t pay attention don’t know what to do. It’s kind of a reality check about why they go to school in the first place.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Bekka Rauve is a freelance writer who lives in the Silver Valley. Panhandle Pieces appears every Saturday. The column is shared among several North Idaho writers.