This 5-day intensive teacher training seminar seeks to familiarize middle and high school instructors with the rich history and archaeology of the Royce Hanson Conservation Park (RHCP). Upon completion of the seminar, teachers will be conversant with the potential classroom applications of the site’s on-line archive. They will have developed lesson plans that draw upon the park to enhance their teaching on a variety of local, national, and global history and archaeology topics. Additionally, teachers will explore the process behind the development of the RHCP site with an eye toward engaging students in reflections on public history and archaeology as professions.
- When: August 3-6, 2026 (Monday – Thursday) + Aug 10 (Monday)
- Where: Aug 3-6 (in-person) → Classroom at Poolesville High School/on site at RHCP, and Aug 10 (virtual) → Teams
Preliminary Schedule and Overview of Daily Topics (Subject to Change):
August 3: Foundations (Poolesville HS Classroom)
- Welcome and Introductions
- Guest Speaker – Dr. Royce Hanson
- From Space to Place – The Human and Environmental History of the RHCP
- Everything You Need in One Place – The RHCP Online Resource Archive
- Visualizing the Park – The RHCP in Maps
- Pedagogy Check-In → Initial Ideas for Final Projects
August 4: Encounters (PHS Classroom/RHCP)
- Welcome to RHCP! – Walking Tour of Park
- Archaeology Workshop at RHCP
- Pedagogy Check-In → Developing Ideas for Final Projects
August 5: Applications (RHCP/PHS Classroom)
- Unearthing the Past – Archaeology Workshop at RHCP
- So What? – It’s a Local Park – Thinking (and Teaching) Nationally and Globally About Local Spaces
- A Collaborative Effort – History and Archaeology as Professions, Working with Communities
- Professional Collaboration Exercise
- Pedagogy Check-In → Advancing Ideas for Final Projects
August 6: Conclusions (PHS Classroom)
- Meetings with Historians/Archaeologists, Pedagogical Consultants, and Participants re: Final Deliverables
- Final Discussion → The Intersection of So Much – Final Reflections on the RHCP as an Historical, Geographical, and Disciplinary ‘Borderland’
August 10: Final Presentations and Discussion (Virtual – Teams)
- Participants’ Final Presentations:
- Discussion → Where do we go from here? – RHCP in the Classroom Next Year and Beyond
Summer Institute Instructional Team
Corey Campion, Institute Director and Lead History Instructor
Dr. Corey Campion is an historian of modern European history and transatlantic relations with extensive teaching and publication expertise in matters of public memory, spatiality studies, and the development of local and national sites of remembrance. Since joining M-NCPPC, he has worked in a variety of local, state, and national archives and libraries to help piece together the rich history of the Royce Hanson Conservation Park. He has conducted multiple Summer Seminars for Teachers through the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has more than 15 years of teaching experience at the high school and college level, including in graduate courses geared toward helping teachers gain enhanced expertise in their content fields.
Cassandra Michaud, Lead Archaeology Instructor
Cassandra Michaud serves as the Cultural Resources Stewardship Supervisor for Montgomery Parks. She previously worked as a Parks Archaeologist for more than 15 years, leading research at sites across the county including the Josiah Henson site, now developed into a museum and park. She is very interested in how local history, archaeology, and landscape ground the past in meaningful ways. She sees the new park as a perfect opportunity to showcase that to visitors and educators.
Julia Berg and Sarah Mason, Pedagogy Consultants
Julia and Sarah are veteran Maryland public school educators and co-founders of Digging Deeper Educational Consulting, established in 2024. With nearly 30 years of combined classroom experience, they have taught middle school social studies, developed curriculum for elementary and middle grades, and led professional development at the school, district, state, and national levels. As contributing authors to Gibbs Smith Education’s textbook series aligned with Maryland’s newly revised 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies Standards, Julia and Sarah are recognized as middle school social studies standards experts and champions of culturally responsive instruction. They are active members of the Archeological Society of Maryland and provide avocational support to the Maryland Historical Trust through fieldwork, public outreach, and educator training. Their work bridges the gap between professional archaeology and classroom practice, empowering educators to deliver authentic learning experiences that honor cultural stewardship and align with state standards. During the Walk in the Park seminar, Julia and Sarah will serve as pedagogy experts, providing practical guidance and classroom examples as teachers develop their final projects.
Jamie Ferguson, Senior Historian
Dr. Jamie Ferguson is the Historian for Montgomery Parks and has served in that capacity since 2008. Jamie provides research assistance to guide interpretation in our parks including signage at the Royce Hanson Conservation Park. She has enjoyed diving into archival records to learn more how the land in this park was used by former owners/occupants and how the tradition of farming propelled the creation of the Agricultural Reserve. Her expertise in African American history, material culture, public history, and museum studies has guided research to develop museum exhibits at the Josiah Henson Museum and the Woodlawn Museum in Montgomery County. She authored Sharp Flashes of Lightning Come From Black Clouds, a book on the life of Reverend Josiah Henson, and is currently working on an Images of America book on Montgomery Parks for the M-NCPPC 100th anniversary in 2027.
Erin Cagney, Senior Archaeologist
Erin Cagney is the Senior Archaeologist for Montgomery Parks and has led archaeological investigations into the Civil War encampments at RHCP over the last year. Prior to joining Parks, Erin spent 10 years working as an archaeologist in the Mid-Atlantic region for various cultural resources management firms and state and federal agencies where she had the opportunity to archaeologically investigate many of the region’s Civil War battlefields. She is intrigued by the research possibilities of the encampments at RHCP, which have the potential to reveal much more information about the personal details of the many men who fought the battles and the surrounding communities with whom they interacted.
