This post is by Jessica Fries-Gaither, a 2024-2025 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress.
Join the Library of Congress this March 27-29 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) conference, where Library staff will offer several opportunities for participants to learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources related to STEM topics and practice hands-on, inquiry-based strategies for using them with students. Stop by booth 347 to talk with Library staff or join us at one of the following events:
- Visit our table at the Meet Me in the Middle Share-a-Thon and learn how to launch units with primary source phenomena from history, illuminate the nature and history of science, analyze primary sources with a three-dimensional lens, and promote student questioning. (March 27 @ 2-4 pm; Exhibit Hall, Poster Session Aisle)
Or participate in one of our three hands-on workshops:
- In From Asking Questions to Using Evidence: Science, Math, and Social Studies Unite, explore how to inspire students to investigate questions of personal, local, cultural, and societal concern, build new knowledge, and keep coming back to the evidence as their arguments grow in sophistication across multiple school subjects. (March 27 @ 2:20; Pennsylvania Convention Center 125)
- In A 300-year-old Painting, A Pioneering Woman Scientist, and Three-Dimensional Learning: Analyzing Primary Sources from the Library of Congress, practice strategies for guiding students in critical analysis using a three-dimensional lens, while learning about the contributions of women to entomology, plate tectonics, chemistry, and engineering. (March 28 @ 2:40 pm; Pennsylvania Convention Center 122A)
- Finally, in Exploring Scientific Practices, the Nature of Science, and STEM in Society: Analyzing Historical Primary Sources from the Library of Congress, practice strategies for promoting critical thinking skills while helping students develop a deeper understanding of real-world scientific and engineering practices, the nature of science, and connections between STEM and society. (March 29 @ 1 pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center 121B)
Whether or not you attend the conference, we hope that you will explore the Library’s online collections and teacher resources. Here are a few things you can do if you are interested in STEM-related items.
- Browse ready-made primary source sets, each of which includes select primary sources and related teacher resources. Some topics include:
- Charts and Graphs
- Ecology
- Informational Text
- Inventions and Innovations
- The Inventive Wright Brothers
- Natural Disasters
- Scientific Data: Observing, Recording, and Communicating Information
- Transportation
- Understanding the Cosmos: Changing Models of the Solar System and the Universe
- Weather Forecasting
- Women in Science and Technology
- Check out the Free to Use and Reuse set on Scientists and Inventors, which includes a wide variety of prints and photographs of American scientists and inventors through history.
- Explore the Teaching with the Library blog for additional primary source suggestions and teaching strategies. When searching the blog, note that you can focus your explorations on STEM-related posts, three-dimensional teaching, or data.
- Delve into the Library’s collections, including the papers of Alexander Graham Bell, Carl Sagan, and Samuel Morse, as well as the early work of Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison.
Also, for your reference and ease of sharing, download these handouts summarizing some of the ways primary sources may be used by science educators:
- Primary Sources in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science
- Primary Sources in the Science Classroom: Cross Cutting Concepts and Phenomena
We encourage you to examine these primary source collections and teaching materials further or join us for a workshop at NSTA. Please take a moment to leave a comment letting us know what you discover!
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