School Club & After School Program
Ancient Treasure Hunters (ATH) is offered to students ranging from 6th to 11th grade in Jewish day schools and high schools in the New York and New Jersey areas. ATH can be structured as a school club with activities during the school day or as an after school program, and includes twelve 1 hour sessions given throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. The program includes a heavy focus on Jewish history and biblical archaeology. A hint of "treasure hunting" is included to help foster excitement in the subject matter. ATH is offered by the Matmonim Foundation, a non for profit organization helping to educate today's Jewish youth.
Activities include watching educationally important and exciting documentaries on biblical archaeological sites, and includes instruction of modern archaeological methods. The most exciting activity performed in the program is the actual cleaning of real ancient archaeological artifacts. In this activity, students are given ancient coins, pottery and/or other artifacts found at sites in the middle east. All artifacts have been generously donated to the Matmonim Foundation for use with the Ancient Treasure Hunters program.
The students apply the cleaning methods they learn during the program to clean the artifacts they are given. After the artifacts are successfully cleaned, the program teaches the students the process of identifying the artifacts. At the end of the program the students get to keep the artifacts they have been given to clean.