This activity is a prime example of Dalton's philosophy, which puts students at the center of their learning. It emphasizes a real world,  activity-based approach; they encounter real problems with real answers. Students experience a comprehensive archaeological dig, which is designed to provide the complete conceptual framework for observing aspects of the city’s history and for understanding New York City culture and history in greater depth. Rather than simply studying information about the history of NYC, it gives all 3rd graders a chance to do the real work of archaeologists. When they dig in to the second stratus, they will find actual artifacts from New Amsterdam. Native American Indian Studies and the Age of Exploration are investigated, in conjunction with an Archaeology unit developed by Neil Goldberg, Dalton’s Archaeologist-in-Residence. View a video in which the children participate in an excavation of a related site, set up in the Dalton First Program’s backyard. This video features the dig, which is the first phase of the process. Later, the students will visit the computer lab to begin researching and identifying their artifacts, their purpose/s and places in history.  

This unit of study highlights the fourth of Dalton's 13 Principals which states that (the School values), "Learning through inquiry and direct experience and encouraging students to be active constructors of knowledge." Putting students in positions to be historians, mathematicians, writers, artists and (in this case) archaeologists is one of the fundamental concepts that Helen Parkhurst established in Education on the Dalton Plan.

"When he comes to the end, the finished achievement takes on all the splendor of success. It embodies all he had thought and felt and lived during the time it has taken to complete. This is real experience. It is culture achieved through individual development and through collective co-operation. It is no longer school---it is life."

~ Helen Parkhurst in Education on the Dalton Plan, 1922