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The urban archaeology dig that took place during April in the back of East High School featuring students, research consultants, EHS teachers and CSU student volunteers.

East students dig community's history

By Matthew Horvath

After researching neighborhood history in March and searching for artifacts through April, the group of sophomores at EHS put it all together in a museum located within the school.

Then, in June, the group was invited by the KnowledgeWorks foundation to present their findings at a luncheon in Columbus where they were applauded for their project.

The foundation took a number of urban high schools in Ohio and transformed them into smaller schools in an effort to make education more effective; EHS was included in the initiative.

This particular small school, the Academy of Creative Expression, contacted Janice Ziegler, the director of education at the WRHS about putting together a service learning project.

“Service learning gets the students to participate in a project that will go across the curriculum and help them learn, but will also be a service to the community,” Ziegler said.

Dr. Richard Klein, adjunct professor at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, came up with the idea of doing an urban archaeology dig and came on board as a research consultant.

“I had conducted digs at CSU successfully for three years in the mid ‘90s and I knew that it could work,” Klein said. “Also, I had an urban archaeologist who I thought would be interested.”

That person was Alfred Lee, research director at the Center for Community Research at Cuyahoga Community College. He completed the team of research consultants for the program named “Bringing Our Neighborhood Together.” The next step was funding it.

The project was awarded $10,000 from the History Channel through its “Save Our History” grant program. Out of 699 applicants nationwide, only 29 received grants.

At this point, the students of EHS visited CSU, WRHS and Tri-C to begin researching archives and studying the topic of archaeology. “We have access to the written records that give us at least a thumbnail sketch of the social persona of the people occupying a property at any given time,” Lee said.

According to Klein, “They began to see how they and their school fit into history, and they started to get interested in how their neighborhood has evolved over the years.”

The group of students, teachers, volunteers and consultants broke ground in April and began to uncover artifacts ranging from the 19th century to present.

“We discovered a whole wide range of things,” Klein said. “We found hairpins, combs, remnants of food, buttons, home-made nails, small construction materials, coins. We also found some asbestos.”

According to Lee, “We can ask a lot of very penetrating questions about the relationship between our social identity, broadly defined, and material culture.”

The discovered artifacts were then cleaned, identified and prepared for display in a museum created for this purpose. In addition to their findings, members of the community also contributed to the museum, which is open upon request.

“It sparked a real noticeable enthusiasm (in the students),” Lee said. “I think they got a surprisingly in-depth look at community history in a short amount of time.”

According to Ziegler, this dig was the first and only special learning project that has taken place in any of the small schools in Ohio.

The intention of all this effort is to encourage students to “stay in school, finish their degree and then seek higher education at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at CSU,” Klein said. “Then go out into the community and serve as community leaders.”

The high school students had a chance not only to work with an urban archaeologist, but also roughly 15 students from CSU who volunteered at different times.

This also promoted the idea of continuing education because they had the opportunity to interact with college students.

“This intermingling of students has helped to break down some of the boundaries that may have existed earlier between high school and university students,” Klein said. “It’s a valuable lesson in courage and determination for all of us.”

The History Channel is scheduled to air a short segment about the project on Aug. 27. The time of the showing is not known at this time. The History Channel has also asked that a grant proposal be submitted for next year.

Klein said he has hopes to expand the program beyond EHS to a regional or possibly national level and continue to reach out to the community.

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