The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected exciting public outreach ventures to undertake for the CSS
Georgia Project. These include an assortment of activities, with target audiences varying from students to educators to the general public. The projects are detailed below.
- Public Lectures (June 2, 2015 & Summary Lecture in 2016)
Public presentations are created as a way to share the project and its information with the public. Through PowerPoint lectures using a variety of graphics in the form of maps, historical photographs, fieldwork and lab work photographs, sonar images, and 3D manipulatives, underwater archaeologists invite the public to become familiar with the CSS Georgia. Presentations by the underwater archaeologists ensure that the audience will receive accurate content across the broad scope of the project. The first lecture was held at the Savannah History Museum (Savannah, Georgia) on June 2, 2015, as extensive dive recovery operations on the wreck continued. The second lecture will be after June 2, 2016. It will focus on information about the conservation and analysis of the CSS Georgia artifacts that were recovered, as well as the interpretation of these materials and the wreck in general.
- Raise the Wreck! Festival at Fort Jackson (July 25, 2015, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.) View photo album of this event
The CSS Georgia wreck lies at a buoy in the Savannah River channel off the bank of historic Fort Jackson, Savannah, Georgia. The Raise the Wreck! Festival is a free, public event. Visitors will have the opportunity to go to the viewing tent to watch underwater archaeologists and Navy divers raise a portion of the wreck the morning of the festival. Demonstrations and programs are scheduled throughout the festival period. Displays and interactive games at various booths will provide children and families with engaging opportunities to discover more about the CSS Georgia and its history. Visitors can enjoy self-guided tours of Fort Jackson, and watch costumed interpreters work. The festival will include firings of a historic cannon, as well as several other exciting activities throughout the grounds.
- Teachers' Institute (May 21 - June 3, 2016) LESSON PLANS NOW AVAILABLE!
The Teachers’ Institute is a four day workshop for 4th‐12th grade educators from Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, and Liberty counties, Georgia and Jasper and Beaufort counties, South Carolina. The purposes of the workshop will be to provide educators the opportunity to earn up to four Professional Learning Units while creating and mastering curriculum and instruction units that will be used to teach state-mandated science, history, language arts, math and other standards in the classroom. The focus of the curricula will be the CSS Georgia and content related to its history, construction, sinking, and archaeological recovery efforts, as well as relevant general 19th century Savannah, and Civil War history. Additional related content will include scientific and environmental components associated with the Savannah River and the complexity of documenting, raising, conserving, and preserving the vessel remains. The workshop will be held in Chatham County, Georgia.
- Traveling Teaching Trunk, since Fall 2016
A teaching trunk will be developed focusing on the CSS Georgia project. The trunk will contain lesson plans and 3‐D objects and materials that will be used by teachers to actively engage students in learning select mandated Georgia Performance Standards, Common Core Georgia Performance Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. The trunk will be a self‐contained unit so that the educator will have everything necessary to incorporate the lesson plans and activities, except expendable supplies (paper, glue, clay, etc.) The trunk will be suitable for teachers with no CSS Georgia background or experience. The trunk will be prototyped and tested by educators, and then finalized for use.
- CSS Georgia Video Documentary Film, Completion in summer 2017
Cosmos Mariner Productions is creating a video documentary film about the CSS Georgia and the raising of the wreck. This unique and innovative 30 minute narrative film will include scientific methods of archaeology used at the wreck site, artifacts recovered and their conservation at Texas A&M University, interviews with underwater archaeologists and historians, and a historic context for the vessel and the Civil War in Savannah, Georgia. The film will include footage of diving and recovery operations, as well as historic images of people and places associated with the story. A companion instruction sheet will include strategies for using the video to teach Science and Historical Literacy and select Georgia Performance Standards for 8th grade, including Common Core Georgia Performance.
The 2017 Georgia Archaeology Month, sponsored by The Society for Georgia Archaeology, features a poster and associated education packet highlighting the CSS Georgia project. The education packet contains a lesson plan and other content relevant to 6-8th grade education curricula topics. The poster and education packet are available at no charge to the public. See Poster and education packet at the Society for Georgia Archaeology site.