Learning by Doing Anthropology

While in Denver for the Society for Applied Anthropology’s annual meeting, I was fortunate to attend a session called “Teaching and Training Anthropology Students at the Community College.” It was fortunate because the three speakers presented ideas that most of us have grappled with, at one time or another, as teachers of anthropology. Of particular interest to me was their ability to actually engage students in rigorous applied anthropological experiences.

For thirteen years I have been grappling with ways to hook students and keep them hooked on anthropology, but with budget issues and scheduling challenges for both students and my institution alike, many of my best ideas have had only brief runs of success. Seven years ago I created an Anthropology Club, but with the typical two-year turnaround for many of my students, it seems I spend most of my time rebuilding the club. I have offered special projects where students work on an ethnographic topic of their choice. That works, but only if you can find some special student willing to commit to three elective credits and a semester of guided independent research.

For several summers I held an archaeological field school at a local battle site. That had the most success in engaging students and showing them the applied face of anthropology, but with such a small class size (limited to 15 students) and high costs, it did not persist. Another strategy I have used with tremendous but limited success is study abroad. Each year I try to take students on a study abroad experience, which, while wonderfully rewarding, only offers those with money to spend the opportunity to participate. This frustration over how to offer applied anthropological experiences led me to this particular session.

The three panelists were from the Community College of Aurora (CCA) and Red Rock Community College (RRCC), two community colleges located not far from Denver. While the three presenters came from different fields in anthropology, each provided innovative examples of effective approaches to teaching applied anthropology. Moreover, the innovative nature of the strategies occurred in very supportive college environments. Not only did their institutions support and encourage their efforts, their students had an amazing level of commitment to the entire process. The strategies presented included hands-on learning, study abroad, lab sections for the department’s foundation courses and a belief that students need to “have fun as they learn.”

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) President, Nancy McCalin, encouraged the more hands-on approach to teaching when she allocated $3M to support a Faculty Challenge Grant Program to develop game and immersive activities into existing land-based courses. Through this grant, faculty members at Colorado Community Colleges were able to develop a series of amazing interdisciplinary hands-on projects. Receipt of a grant was based on a project supporting the following criteria:

• Projects needed to be collaborative in nature, including, for example, interdepartmental or intercampus initiatives incorporating elements of game-based or immersive learning.


• Projects needed to incorporate behavior motivation considerations (for example, points, badges, leader boards, among others).


• Projects needed to develop a system for tracking student learning outcomes and evidence-based evaluation.


• Projects included opportunities for faculty professional development.


• Each proposal needed to demonstrate a shift in pedagogy—using games and/or immersive technology in support of learning.


• Priority was given to projects that moved from 100% classroom based to “hybrid” or “blended” learning, for example: “flipping” the classroom—doing things outside of class that used to be done in class (such as lectures), and using class time for collaborative activities. Blended learning provides students with both the flexibility of online learning (time and place) and the structure and engagement of the in‐person classroom experience. CCCS is interested in exploring a variety of blended learning models, including various time‐share models (e.g., 50:50, 60:40, or 30:70 face‐to‐face versus online).


• Proposals for “web-enhanced” courses that do not fundamentally change the instructional model were not considered (The Faculty Challenge Grant Program Work Session, May 9, 2012).

For CCA, the faculty developed a project called CSI:Aurora, where students in archaeology and forensics, criminal justice, paralegal, and chemistry and biology participated. The instructors created a simulated crime scene, whereby archaeology students excavated remains (requiring the skills of sifting and bagging artifacts); forensic students identified and then interpreted the finds (a purchased human skull that was treated to a complete pathology report and dental evaluation prior to becoming part of the crime scene was used); paralegal students prepared evidence for the trial; and the science students served as expert witnesses. These events occurred on Saturdays and took most of an academic year to complete. According to Elizabeth Hirsch, one of the leads on this project and an anthropology faculty member at CCA, this project gave students “the necessary skills at the community college level to participate in internships,” just as it provided faculty with a way to connect anthropology to other disciplines.

To the anthropology faculty, efforts like the crime scene project encouraged very positive partnerships with other disciplines. Instead of the feeling that any new general education course in psychology or sociology has the potential to cannibalize anything anthropology can offer, these partnerships are seen as rewarding to both faculty and students alike. For example, anthropology faculty members are invited to visit other disciplines’ classes. There, they present a tantalizing lecture on some anthropological topic that sometimes “tricks the students” into seeing the value of anthropology. The success they have had is extraordinary. In any semester, either of these two community colleges offers not only sections in cultural and physical anthropology, archaeology and corresponding lab sections in each, but also multiple, unique 200-level courses that, in combination with applied labs, really prepare students for transferring to four-year institutions.

The success both Red Rock Community College and the College of Aurora have had in preparing “the next generation of anthropologists” reminds me of what it takes to make anthropology meaningful and appealing to today’s students. While classroom lectures have a critical role in any student’s education, learning through hands-on experiences really moves anthropology from the imagined to the real.

Email communications for the SACC column to lloyd.miller@mchsi.com.

via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/05/06/learning-by-doing-anthropology/