RYSAG meets Indiana Jones

The recent release of the film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has been timed perfectly with plans for this summer’s RYSAG (Rochester Young Scholars Academy at Geneseo) camp experience. Last July, young CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) candidates scoured the campus for clues relating to a fictitious art theft, culminating in a Grand Jury hearing where four key suspects were indicted and sent to jail to await further prosecution. This summer, the focus of the academic summer experience is on Archaeology.

Approximately 60 middle school students will arrive on campus July 14 and spend two weeks plotting, graphing, digging, analyzing, researching, interviewing, blogging, and visually documenting findings that we hope will unearth artifacts from a pre-colonial Seneca village.

Much like last year, Milne Library will serve as “Command Central” where Camp Director, Susan Norman (Xerox Center for Multicultural Education) establishes her home base in room 208, classes are taught in rooms 105 and 109 by Kim Hoffman (Library), Meredith Harrigan (Communication), and Joanna Kirk (Political Science), library staff pose as stakeholders in the dig and will be interviewed by students, and technology is used and becomes pervasive throughout the discovery process. Other key faculty players in D.I.G. (Discovering the Iroquois at Geneseo) include Kristi Krumrine (Anthropology) and Eric Helms (Chemistry). Many other administrators, faculty, staff, students and community members will play an essential role as RYSAG attempts to retell the story of the Seneca in Geneseo.

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