Activities & Events
Share your love of anthropology and spread the word about your AnthroClub! The list below highlights successful events held by previous Anthropology Day participants. These ideas can be adapted for virtual or in-person AnthroDay celebrations.
Get the Word Out About Anthropology & Promote Your Club
- Information Booth
- Set-up a booth/table with club information on campus (ex. Main hall of the student activity building). If space permits, you can separate the four different fields into separate tables.
- Distribute information about your club and the anthropology major/minor opportunities and programs at your school.
- To attract students, and if funds permit, provide snacks, candy, and possibly a raffle (giveaway items can include AAA swag).
- Department Open House & Tours
- Set up a table in the anthropology department and provide tours of campus museums, etc.
- Host an open house event and promote your major, minors, and concentrations. Have items on display. You can develop a short promotional video and have a faculty member there to give short talks to interested visitors.
Informal Gatherings
- Sessions/Talks
- Have a former student give a talk about their current research project.
- Watch a movie about anthropology (ex. The Anthropologist, Margaret Mead: Taking Notes, and The Wisdom to Survive) and hold a discussion afterward. Don’t forget the popcorn!
- Forums
- Host a “works in progress series” that allows students to share their research, test their presentation skills and get some constructive criticism (view this in action).
Visual Representation
- Diversity Wall
- Provide students with the opportunity to write on a single piece of cardboard the name of the country they feel represents them culturally (view this in action).
- Make a “living collage” of pictures and stories that participants can interact with and add to throughout the week.
- Department Cheer
- Organize your space into a variety of activity areas. Highlight the four sub-disciplines with four posters. Create a sign with the header “Anthropology is…” and let participants write their thoughts on cards/paper and tape to the wall.
- Develop a short informational video and promote it via social media
K-12 Outreach 
- Write cards for school students (high school or elementary).
- Visit a school and develop an activity for them to learn about anthropology
- Have students write anthropology slogans in Mayan glyphs or Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- Divide activities in rooms or tables:
- Room/Table 1
Showcase casts of fossil skulls and tools, as well as some modern ape and human skulls. Also develop a small activity project explaining the difference between words and icons, using stamps of Egyptian hieroglyphs and emoji stickers. Develop a poster that provides basic information about prosimians, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys and apes.
- Room/Table 2
Have participants at one table with popsicle sticks and one with clothespins where people can make a God’s eye and a worry doll (or a similar craft project connected to a cultural tradition). Provide associated handouts explaining the cultural function and meaning of the objects.
- Room/Table 3
Develop a mock archaeological dig set up in plastic tubs. Each tub can contain either soil (for little kids) or stratigraphy layers of sand and soil (for older kids). You can embed plastic coins, beads and arrowheads in the soil. You can provide hand shovels, trowels and sifters for them to use.
- If possible, provide an associated coloring book and/or word search puzzle for every participant.
Activities & Games 
- Language
- Develop a game that matches the word “thank you” written in different languages with the correct language.
- Archaeology
- Collect artifacts from around your campus (ex. a former arsenal) and let participants categorize them.
- Biological
- If available, get a prehistoric skull from your school’s collection and let participants examine it and ask questions. The more examples the better.
- Cultural
- Develop a game matching hand gestures with what they mean in other cultures.
- Develop a world music playlist.
- Develop a selfie station. Provide props and ask students to take photos they feel represent them culturally.
- Trivia
- Develop a trivia game.
- Students can spin a wheel and answer a question based on one of the four sub-fields of anthropology (depending on where the wheel lands) and win a prize if they get the answer right.
- Guess the Language game
- Anthropology themed Jeopardy
- Other games
- Anthropology After Dark event: Turn your department lobby into an Egyptian tomb (possibly constructed by archaeology students) or other fascinating location and offer tours where participants may also drop off canned goods for the local food bank.
- Organize a scavenger hunt across campus that allows students to photograph the listed anthropology related items with their cell phones.
- Create an in-person or virtual escape room. Take a look at the ISU Anthropology Department "Mystery of the Misplaced Mummy" escape room for inspiration.
Engage Socially
- Post quotes on your social media pages throughout the week (ex. Quotes from students, faculty and staff highlighting what anthropology means to them).
Themed Snack Ideas
- Sugar cookies frosted in white icing and decorated with the blue Anthropology Day symbol.
- Hold a pot-luck with your club or department and ask each person to bring in a food that they associate with their own culture. This would also work in a classroom setting.
Contests
- Essay Contests
Prizes are always fun so get creative with ideas or, if funds permit, offer a small monetary prize!
- Contestants can “Describe in one page the most unusual, exciting, or sublime anthropological experience you have ever had.”
- Video Contests
- Contestants can “shoot a one-minute (or less) video depicting how you went about explaining to your friends and family what anthropology is and why you want to be an anthropologist.” Video can be made alone or by a team.
