Educational Resources
Ancient China Teaching Kit:
How Archaeology Helps Us Learn About China's Past
• Designed for teaching grades 3-8
• Available for nationwide rental through the Boston Children's Museum
• Kit includes over 20 hours of lessons and activities
Some of the explorable objects in each Ancient China teaching kit include, from left, carved jade, bronze "knife money," lacquer "eared cup", and bamboo slip book.
Fun, informative, and filled with replica artifacts and hands-on activities, the Ancient China Teaching Kit, brings amazing archaeological discoveries froom China to the classroom. Available for rental nationwide, the kit is an exciting and essential classroom tool for Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and World History curricula. Designed with the needs of today's educators in mind, the kit guides teachers through a variety of classroom approaches to life in ancient China. Used in schools around the country, teachers rave about this kit and how it provides all they need to get students excited about China's ancient past.
The kit explores the beginning of settled villages (ca. 5000-2500 BCE) through the time of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (ca. 221 BCE) whose mausoleum includes the famous terra cotta army. Topics include archaeological discoveries, ancient lifeways (diet, clothing and adornment), early forms of writing, and the invention of bronze metallurgy.
Designed as a comprehensive multimedia presentation, each kit includes a highly illustrated Teacher's Guide to Chinese Archaeology with background reading and classroom exercises, precise replicas of ancient artifacts (including oracle bones, food grains, mineral ores needed to create bronze, and bronze mirrors) for hands-on activities outlined in the accompanying lesson plan book, visual aids (color overhead transparencies and maps), a CD of music being played on a 2500 year-old set of bronze bells excavated in central China, and selected books for all ages.
For more information, or to rent the kit, contact the Boston Children's Museum at 1-800-370-KITS (5487), ext. 231. Click here for website.
Public Lectures
The East Asian Archaeology Forum at ICEAACH hosts a series of talks each semester in the ICEAACH library or BU's Archaeology Department. The talks are free and open to the public. Recent lectures include:
Prof. FANG Hui (Director, Shandong University Museum, and Professor, School of History and Culture, Shandong University), "Recent Discoveries at the Daxinzhuang site, Shandong, China, and their Implications for Shang Archaeology."
Dr. YANG Jianhua (Professor of Archaeology, Frontier Archaeology Center, Jilin University, China), "Issues of Ethnicity in the Archaeology of China’s Northern Frontiers."
Dr. MA Xiaolin (Associate Professor, Vice-Director, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, China), "Toward a New Understanding of Pigs in Ancient China: A Cohort Study of the Modern Wild Boar."
Dr. CHANG In-sung (Professor of Chinese History, Chungnam National University, Korea), "History and Archaeology of the Archaic State of Paekche in 3rd century Korea."
If you would like to be added to the EAAF announcements email list, please contact us by email to asianarc@bu.edu. For upcoming talks, click here.
Teaching Resources
Working closely with the Boston Children's Museum and Boston Public Schools, ICEAACH develops curriculum resources, like the Ancient China Teaching Kit, and provides professional development training for teachers in collaboration with Primary Source (a non-profit center for multicultural and global education), the Boston Children's Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and other educational institutions and museums.
For more educational resources, or for answers to more specific research questions, feel free to contact us!
ICEAACH Library
ICEAACH's research library is a terrific resource for anyone interested in early East Asia. The library is open to all interested users: no special affiliations are required. Click here for more information and hours.