The following is a guest post by Michael Apfeldorf of the Library of Congress.
On Saturday, October 7, from 11 am – 12 pm, the Library of Congress will facilitate a one hour hands-on workshop — Exploring Practices, Nature of Science, and Science in Society: Analyzing Historical Primary Sources from the Library of Congress – at the NSTA Area Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The session may be attended by any registered conference attendee and will focus on strategies for using primary sources in the science classroom. It will be held at the Hilton Baltimore, Key 7.
Digitized versions of Thomas Jefferson’s weather journal, Robert Hooke’s first drawings of cells, photographs from the Dust Bowl, and historic newspaper accounts about lead paint and electric cars all provide opportunities to understand how scientists and engineers think, practice, and apply scientific principles and discoveries in the real world; how scientific ideas evolve over time; and how science and engineering are related to society. The Library of Congress has millions of primary sources freely available online at loc.gov.
Exploring Practices, Nature of Science, and Science in Society: Analyzing Historical Primary Sources from the Library of Congress will focus on how analyzing primary sources can help teachers meet standards and teaching goals, particularly around the nature of science, the practices of scientists, and how science, technology, and society interact. An education expert from the Library will facilitate hands-on activities using primary sources from the Library’s rich collections and share ways that teachers nationwide have incorporated these primary sources into their teaching. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for engaging students in primary source analysis to build critical thinking skills and deepen their understanding of the practices of scientists as well as the connections between science and society.
We hope to see you in Baltimore!
Comments (7)
Is there any way to get a copy of the presentation for those of us who will not be attending the Baltimore conference. I am in So California. Will you be out our way anytime? Thanks
I’ll forward your message to the staff member teaching the workshop.Thanks for your interest.
This sounds interesting – but I don’t know what NTSA stands for, it was not documented in the blurb about this conference.
NSTA is the National Science Teacher Association.
Have you consider having this workshop in the Chicago area?
I’ve forwarded your inquiry to the person teaching the workshop. You may also wish to contact one of our Teaching with Primary Sources partners Governors State University. They have a strong teaching science with primary sources component as part of their work.
While it’s not the same as a workshop interaction, this blog has published many science-related posts. Enter “science” into the search box at the upper left to start browsing!