April Student Features 2013

Ashley McCuistion, Fourth-Year Student, School of World Studies, College of Humanities & Sciences

McCuistion’s paper, “Promoting the Past: The Educational Applications of 3D Scanning Technology in Archaeology,” won the undergraduate student paper contest at the recent Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference in Virginia Beach.

McCuistion, an anthropology major, attended the conference with fellow students and members of the Virtual Curation Laboratory at VCU.

“I reviewed archaeological visualization and the introduction of 3D scanning and printing technology, then discussed how this technology can be utilized in various educational settings, including courses taught in anthropology, archaeology, osteology and history,” said McCuistion.

Her research included giving lessons to high school and university-level students using digital models of artifacts and plastic replicas and recording student response to each.

McCuiston’s paper will be published in the Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology.