(WAVERLY, NY) The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native American Studies (SRAC) located at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY recently hosted the entire fourth grade for the Waverly Area School District as a part of their American Indian studies curriculum. The field trip for over 125 students was broken up into a morning and afternoon session which allowed the five classes to take in the field trip in smaller groups. Each session included 4 stations to include “Hunting the Woolly Mammoth” with Ted Keir, “Native American Children Stories” by Jack Andrus, “Early Trade” with Dick Cowles, and even a rotation through the SRAC gift shop which is always popular with the kids.
SRAC Co-Founder Deb Twigg commented, “Doing field trips for the 4th graders in the area is one of the highlights for us. When the kids start coming in the door and Jack is dressed in Native American attire and pounding the drum, it still gets me every time.”
After the students finished the stations, they were gathered back in the SRAC lecture hall where they played the “Stump the Chump” contest where each team tries to stump the other teams on questions about what they learned throughout the event. This year the winning team won the opportunity to be involved with a Christmas art contest that will take place on Broad Street Waverly’s storefronts in tandem with this year’s Tinsel and Lights celebration by getting one of SRAC’s front windows to paint their scene on.
Twigg added, “Every year we try to do something bigger and better for the kids, and this year by adding the Christmas scene opportunity we hopefully are getting the sense of community added to what they learn at our field trips at SRAC.”
