This course offers an introduction to the history and historiography of science from ancient Greece to the present. It is designed to serve as an introduction for those who have no prior background in the field and to deepen the knowledge of those who already do. We will consider how the history of science has responded to its encounters with philosophy, sociology, economics, and anthropology. Our readings and discussions will focus on determining what makes particular works effective, understanding major contemporary trends and debates in the history of science, and establishing resources for further research.

This lesson emphasizes the connections between science and mathematics by using a performance, or authentic, assessment format. Students will develop measurement skills as they relate the size of their fists to the size of their hearts. Students have the opportunity to explore applications involving their own hearts. An activity sheet (pdf) is included.

Every living thing must be able to reproduce and make offspring. Most of us are familiar with how humans and mammals make babies, but do all creatures reproduce in the same way? Do insects, like the beetle, give birth to little insects? Also in: French | Spanish

Students investigate how sea levels might rise when ice sheets and ice caps melt. By constructing a pair of models, students can observe the effects of ice melt in two different situations.

Aaron and Justin investigate which sunscreen best keeps out harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun, in this video from DragonflyTV.

In this video segment adapted from Shedding Light on Science, observe demonstrations of the fundamental idea that light travels in straight lines.

When AIDS struck the gay community during the early 1980's, many who had not previously consider themselves activists, like Bruce Priebe, became politically active. Militancy, political action, and demands for rights and recognition within the gay and lesbian community had been building throughout the post-war period. While many homosexual men and women first expressed their sexuality during World War II, a period of relative, albeit silent, tolerance, the movement for gay rights became more assertive following the 1969 Stonewall Riot, when New York City police raided a gay club. The burst of community health activism in response to the AIDS epidemic built on these earlier expressions of "gay pride" and activism.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, explore the theory that small bits of gas and dust combined to form protoplanets billions of years ago, which in turn collided to create the four rocky planets of the inner solar system.

In this recycling activity students conduct a poll and display data showing which type of material the survey population feels is the best for shopping bags. Students share their results in a data display of their choice and then use the data to draw conclusions and create a recycling plan. The activity includes the student worksheet, extension suggestions, and related resources.

Students learn how the human body self-regulates to maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in the external environment.

Students investigate hominid evolution. They learn the difference between a relative and an ancestor, study the emergence of bipedalism, and chart patterns of hominid migration.

This video segment from The Human Spark features a discussion about how human thought differs from that of chimpanzees.

In this video segment adapted from the National Film Board of Canada, learn how the Inuit people have used their traditional knowledge to understand and adapt to changes in their Arctic environment, particularly when hunting and navigating the landscape.

In the early 20th century, new household technology was both accomplished and inspired by the tremendous increase in American industrial production. As in industry, mechanization and scientific management were part of a larger reorganization of work. And as in industry, efficient housekeeping was partially a response to labor unrest--both the "servant problem" and the growing disquiet of middle-class wives. Machines offered salvation through technology; scientific housework promised satisfaction through systematic and efficient methods. But middle-class wives themselves voiced a discontent that could not be addressed through new purchases or better systems. In 1923, Woman's Home Companion solicited readers' letters for a series that offered the magazine as a clearinghouse for women's household problems and solutions. In response, nearly two thousand women wrote letters to the magazine. Skeptical of the solutions afforded by washing machines and efficiency methods, many of them called for cooperative housekeeping, paid work, help from children and husbands, and equality in marriage--solutions not contemplated by the enthusiasts of either scientific housekeeping or the new household technology.

Born in Forreston, Illinois, in 1868, Sylvie Thygeson taught and worked as a stenographer and typist before her marriage at the age of twenty-three. She and her husband, a lawyer, lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. An activist for women's rights, including suffrage and the legalization of contraception, Thygeson felt that birth control was both a crucial part of egalitarian marriage and a major political commitment. In this interview, conducted in 1972 by her daughter Mary Thygeson Shepardson and historian Sherna Gluck, Thygeson described her and her husband's decision to limit their family, a choice that enabled her to work in the suffrage and birth control movements. Her account offered an intriguing glimpse of how birth control advocates circulated information about contraception at a time when many physicians refused to do so, and when both law and public opinion constrained such practices.

Maker Faire participants collaborate in ISKME's Design Lab, using digital stories and salvaged materials to design an innovative school of the future. The Design Lab features Makers Mauro ffortisimo Di Nucci's deconstructed piano and INKA Biospheric Systems' Vertical Garden; as well as Student and Teacher project examples that integrate art, science, sustainability, and green design inspire the creation of shareable open-source learning resources. This wiki page showcases photos and video from the Design Lab, open educational resources for teachers, and a step by step guide through the design process.

Biology entire year curriculum which allows students to develop their own driving questions which address NGSS standards and will lead them through their learning via collaborative groups of peers. There are six different storylines that cover a year long high school Biology course. The activities are designed for all students and are culturally-responsive. The lesson plans are free for educators, and the materials required are designed to be economically feasible for all students and school's with limited resources. There is also a Facebook working group called Illinois Biology Storylines Group which is also very beneficial for educators to share information about activities.

On July 1, 1946, less than a year after dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the U.S. embarked on its first postwar atomic weapons test at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. David Bradley, a physician and member of the Radiological Safety Unit at Bikini, voiced concern over dangers from radioactivity in his 1948 best-seller, No Place to Hide. In response to Bradley and other critics, the Atomic Energy Commission, the military, and other government agencies attempted to diffuse growing fears about radioactivity. The following Collier's article by a military officer--using the same eyewitness-account format as in Bradley's book--tried to persuade its readers that fears about "lingering radiation" were unfounded by documenting a test in the Nevada desert in which the military deliberately sent soldiers close to "ground zero" soon after an explosion. Some readers remained unconvinced; their published letters can be found following the article. In 1963, the U.S. and Soviet Union signed a treaty to halt atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons. By that time, some 300,000 U.S. military personnel and an unknown number of civilians in areas downwind from the test sites had been exposed to radiation. In subsequent years, studies revealed higher rates of leukemia, cancer, respiratory ailments, and other health problems among these groups. Underground atomic weapons tests continued at the Nevada Test Site until a moratorium was declared in 1992, after 928 nuclear tests.

Tragically, contact between Indians and the Europeans extended beyond just trade goods; the invasion of foreign microbes devastated Indian communities well beyond the coastal region. When John Lawson visited the Carolina interior in the 1690s, he encountered the Congaree people, whose numbers and villages had been dramatically reduced by smallpox and other diseases. In 1660, Lawson, born into a London gentry family and aspiring to a career as a natural scientist, had set sail for the Carolina colony that was founded after the restoration of the British monarchy. He traveled more than a thousand miles as an employee of the colony's proprietors, who were eager to attract additional colonists and foster economic development. Lawson's keen eye for the native and non-native people, flora, and fauna of the region was evidenced in his journal A New Voyage to Carolina, published in 1709.