An Afternoon at the Charles County Expo - 2025

On Saturday March 22 Charles County Public Schools once again held its History, Industry, Technology, and Science (H.I.T.S.) Expo at St Charles High School in Waldorf, Maryland.  There were thirty-seven tables and six classroom activities/presentations sponsored by different organizations and school groups with CCASM having two of the tables.  A lot was going on.  There were a variety of hands-on activities to engage the students (and the adults), and there were lots of people.  Initial feedback was this was the largest audience in the nine years of the EXPO.

One of CCASM's tables included a display depicting the various archaeological skills related to history and science.  The other table contained an activity we call "Archaeologists Dig for Clues" to show how archaeologist learn about a location and people from what they have left behind.  We also had miscellaneous artifacts and photos to share.  We didn't count the number of students completing the activity but we were able to interact with a number of children as well as with their parents.

 

Interacting with children (and parents)

Talking about archaeology and CCASM

Thanks to Linda, Elsie, Claudia, Ned, and Carol for being there to interact with the students and their parents. 

Click to see the winners of the special History Day award and the Science Fair Archaeology award sponsored by the Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc.

 

2025 Charles County History Day and Science Fair

On March 22, 2025 the combined Charles County Public Schools Annual History Day  and the Annual Science Fair (now referred to as H.I.T.S.) was once again held at the St Charles High School in Waldorf, Maryland.  CCASM sponsored one of the special History awards and one of the Science awards.  In both cases the award was $50 and a one-year membership in CCASM.

This year's history topic was "Rights & Responsibilities in History".  The CCASM special History award went to Perise Melson for the display “U2 Spy Plane Incident”.   Perise attends Matthew Henson Middle School. 
(Due to a mixup, we do not have a photo of Perise's display.)

 

 

This year's CCASM Science award for a project "demonstrating excellence and scientific thinking relevant to the field of archaeology" went to Ethan Ben Gregory Escasinas for his science project on “Snow to H2O: Purifying Nature's Frozen Water”.   Ethan is in the eighth grade at Theodore G Davis Middle School.

Congratulations, --- Perise and Ethan!


Also CCASM would like to thank Carol Cowherd and Ned Edelen who judged the science projects for the CCASM award.

Susquehanna River Art

Paul Niven

At the  March 20 CCASM meeting Paul Nevin talked about the petrogpyphs in a thirty mile stretch of the Lower Susquehanna River at three sites - Walnut Island, Safe Harbor, and Bald Friar.  Starting with the documentation of the petroglyphs in the 1800s up to present day, we learned about the differences of the rock art at these three locations as well as more detailed description of those at Safe Harbor.  

Paul Niven has been researching the petroglyphs on the lower Susquehanna River for over forty years.  He guides tours to view the rock art for Safe Harbor Petroglyphs Tours and has recently published a guidebook book about the petroglyphs.  You can learn more a out the tours and the book at safeharborpetroglyphs.com

Thanks to Jim for using his account to set up the Zoom meeting and to Peggy for providing the hot spot.  Paul Niven presented from Pennsylvania via Zoom.

Catching up while waiting for Zoom talk to start

Attendance: 13 (including 5 via Zoom)

Southern Maryland, 2000 BCE

James Gibb

At the  February 20 CCASM meeting Dr. James Gibb talked about stone tools and lithic waste associated with the Terminal Archaic Period that had been discarded along a relict stream channel near Mattawoman Creek in Charles County and what they might tell us about how Native Americans lived and interacted with their environs at that site and two nearby sites. But first he gave an overview on Native American time periods from Paleoindian through Terminal Archaic and an overview of creating a point from a cobble via knapping.  Overall an informative talk.

Chronology

Relict Stream Channel

Jim Gibb is a Smithsonian Research Associate that directs SERC’s Environmental Archaeology Laboratory as well as the owner of Gibb Archaeological Consulting.

There was the possibility of snow on February 20, and the temperatures were to be below freezing.  So on the weekend we decided to have an all Zoom meeting.  The weather forecast was only partly right.  It was really cold.   We got to stay warm inside and interact with each other via Zoom.

Faces

Thanks to Jim for using his account to set up the Zoom meeting.

Attendance: 10

Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils

David Lines

For the January CCASM meeting David Lines told us about the Southern Maryland Rock and Mineral Club (http://www.smrmc.org/)  including its fields trips and other activities.  The Club currently meets at The Old Waldorf School in Waldorf, Maryland. 

But most of the time David talked about rocks and fossils, giving brief overviews with examples.  He had brought a number of boxes with labeled rocks that we got to handle.  After turning out all the lights we saw rocks (and a vintage vaseline plate) fluoresce under a uv light.  Throughout the talk there were questions and discussions about rocks in Maryland and just rocks in general.  Daivd also brought display boxes with projectile points he had found as a child.

Rocks, Fossils, and
Projectile Points

Rocks from Maryland and
Others that Fluoresce

David Lines is the Field Trip Coordinator for the Southern Maryland Rock and Mineral Club. 

Looking at objects like rocks and fossils works better with an in-person meeting - so no Zoom.  Thanks to Peggy for setting up a FaceTime session for one of our members getting over covid.

Waiting for Meeting to Start

Attendance: 11 (including 1 via FaceTime)