Surfing the Sahara

A Bedouin family looks on as an "Odyssey in Egypt" archaeologist downloads their photos to students in Michigan. (Photograph by Guglielmo de'Micheli)

ours from Cairo, deep in the desert, an archaeologist toils beneath the burning sun, carefully unearthing a pottery shard. Nearby, a Bedouin family looks on. Thousands of miles away in a Michigan classroom, students catch their breath. As part of "Odyssey in Egypt", an online archeology project geared to kids, these middle school students can practically work alongside archeologists excavating a 4th Century Coptic monastery.

"It puts the trowel in the students' hands," says Dr. Scott Carroll, co-director of the dig in Wadi, Natrun, Egypt. "They are almost able to feel the sands of the Sahara."

At the dig site in Wadi Natrun, Egypt, a worker brings up artificats found below the desert floor. Images and information about the artifact and the site of this 4th Century monastery are then sent electronically to students thousands of miles away. (Photograph by Guglielmo de'Micheli)

Thanks to the Internet, students can experience the painstaking work and thrill of discovery involved in excavation. (Photograph by Guglielmo de'Micheli)

In addition to weekly online dig updates, students learn about life on and around the excavation site. Subjects, such as culture and religion and are coupled with online interviews with Egyptian kids or a cave-dwelling Coptic Monk who lives near the site. While the archaeologists struggle to piece together ancient pottery, the students mimic the process they see online by doing a similar project in the classroom. Molded facsimiles of actual archaeological finds are sent to the students and on-site staff communicate via email, helping students explore the on-the-job logistics, such as how to keep scorpions out of your tent while on a dig.

Odyssey in Egypt students keep step with the work on the Egyptian site through classroom projects like making mummy masks, assembling shards and studying Egyptian pottery methods. (Photograph by Guglielmo de'Micheli)

For kids like middle school student Allison Haney, the "Odyssey in Egypt" project has been more than just a new way to use the Net. "Textbooks can get so boring. This kind of project might change the way I think about Social Studies," she says. Her classmate Leigha Drexler seems to agree, "It's cool that an 11 year-old can take advantage of such an awesome thing!"

A student, silhouetted by the glow of his computer in his own make-shift desert cave, reads email from the monk. (Photograph by J. Kyle Keener)

A Coptic monk who lives nearby the site in a cave, emails the students, shedding light on the spiritual teachings that were once taught at the 4th Century monastery. (Photograph by Guglielmo de'Micheli)

http://www.scriptorium.org/scriptorium