Discovering Science and Technology Through American History:A Pilot Project

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The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) in collaboration with the Charles River Museum of Industry will use the history of technology to introduce students in American history classes to applications of chemistry, physics and engineering. "Discovering Science and Technology through American History: A Pilot Project" will stimulate greater interest among middle and high school students in science and technology and will demonstrate to them the impact of science and engineering on their daily lives. The broader goal of this unconventional approach is to encourage students to pursue academic study of science and engineering. The technology selected to achieve these goals is textiles and apparel which students care about personally and one that deals with both science and engineering. The essence of the project will be eight modular curriculum units which can be inserted into American History survey courses without disruption to existing curricula and teacher lesson plans. The units will be prepared by a group of eighteen middle and high school teachers and historians of technology. Curricular packages will include detailed lesson plans, bibliographies for students and teachers, background essays for teachers, descriptions of student projects, black line art and diagrams which teachers can photocopy for classroom use, experiments and videotapes. The units may include some simple artifacts and indicate where others can be obtained. The Society for the History of Technology has the technical expertise and the resources of the Charles River Museum provide a strong information base for the development of the project.