What you allow, is what will continue.

What is an artifact bag?

An artifact bag can be brought in the classroom for a hands on, minds on look into History. Artifact bags allow students to be personally involved in their history lesson. Students are encouraged to look inside an "artifact bag" and develop their own conclusions about a specific historical event. Through inquiry, the class will make connections between the artifacts in their bag and determine their importance.

For example:
I created an artifact bag to represent the controversy of Hydraulic Fracturing. Students were not told the topic before hand. They were encouraged to put the pieces of the story together with their peers. In order to aid their discoveries, the class was asked to reflect on the questions; who/what, when, where, why, and how. After discussing and replying to these questions, students created their own conclusions about the significance of these artifacts to Hydraulic Fracturing.

Hydraulic Fracturing artifact bag contents:


My artifact bag lesson power point:

Artifact Bag: Hydraulic Fracturing

Reflection:

As time goes on, we are discovering more and more information about student's attention spans. "Attention span is the amount of concentrated time one can spend on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus and sustain attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals." Psychologists claim that the average students attention span is about 10 to 15 minutes long. The average length of a lesson is 30-50 minutes long. If an educator stands in front of the class and lectures for the average 30-50 minutes of a lesson, are the students really learning? No. I  think we can all recall a time we were sitting classes day dreaming, thinking of the things we could be getting done instead of sitting here "wasting our time", missing hearing the homework assignment, missed the notes from two whole slides, asked a question that was just answered, our put on the spot to answer a question about the information just presented. It's not fair. Why should we expect students to complete a task that medical and psychology professionals say is nearly impossible? We shouldn't. There are plenty of ways teachers can make learning active, engaging, entertaining, and suitable for a variety of student demographics. 
Artifact bags are a good example of how to engage students in learning about history. Lessons like these allow students to get out of their seats, cooperate in group discussions, and think on their own. Artifact bags tell a story about an event from the past, present, or future. They create history for students right in front of their eyes. Students can look at real photographs, read a real document, hold a piece of history and image what life was like, is like, or will be like.
It is so important for students to become active in their learning. It aids understanding, allows for questions, creates creative thinking, and solves the issue of lack of attention span.