In 1927, responding to the seemingly overpowering claims of advertisers and mass marketers, engineer Frederick Schlink and economist Stuart Chase published Your Money's Worth, which argued for an "extension of the principle of buying goods according to impartial scientific tests rather than according to the fanfare and triumphs of higher salesmanship." Your Money's Worth became an instant best-seller, and the authors organized Consumers' Research, a testing bureau that provided information and published product tests in a new magazine, Consumers' Research Bulletin. The 1929 stock market crash heightened suspicion of consumer capitalism, and the magazine had 42,000 subscribers by 1932. In 1933, Schlink and Arthur Kallet (executive secretary of Consumers' Research) published 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics. The book struck a responsive chord in depression-era America--it went through thirteen printings in its first six months and became one of the best-selling books of the decade. The book's first chapter ("The Great American Guinea Pig"), gave a flavor of their vigorous arguments.

As part of my presentation for the K12 Online Conference I am publishing this 50 page document. It is a combination of the 50+ RSS Ideas for Educators document and the Teaching Hacks wiki. It is geared towards an introduction to RSS, but carries on a bit further into topics such as tagging, social bookmarking, wikis and more. Link is to a pdf document.

The following list is ten of the best online video websites that offer entertaining and educational videos that kids will love. If you are a parent looking for an alternative to television for your kids, or you are a teacher looking for appropriate content for the classroom, this list can help.

In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad replaces a piece of track to get the Madre Bonita Express to the Mother's Day harvest.

The exhibition 1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE describes both pre- and post-contact America, as well as the Mediterranean world at the same time. Compelling questions are raised, such as: Who lived in the Americas before 1492? Who followed in the wake of Columbus? What was the effect of 1492 for Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere? The Library of Congress' Quincentenary exhibition addresses these questions, as well as other related themes, including fifteenth century European navigation, the myths and facts surrounding the figure of Columbus, and the differences and similarities between European and American world views at the time of contact.

This animation displays one year of Outgoing Long-wave Radiation (OLR) Terra-CERES data (March 1, 2000 to May 25, 2001) with a 14-day boxcar average. Endpoints have the average re-weighted for the smaller amount of data. The data are 2.5 degree resolution.

This animation displays one year of Reflected Solar Radiation (RSR) Terra-CERES data (March 1, 2000 to May 25, 2001) with a 14-day boxcar average. Endpoints have the average re-weighted for the smaller amount of data. The data are 2.5 degree resolution.

The deadly lung disease silicosis is caused when miners, sandblasters, and foundry and tunnel workers inhale fine particles of silica dust--a mineral found in sand, quartz, and granite. In 1935, approximately 1,500 workers--largely African Americans who had come north to find work--were killed by exposure to silica dust while building a tunnel in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Ordinarily, silicosis takes a several years to develop, but these West Virginia tunnel workers were falling ill in a matter of months because of exposure to unusually high concentrations of silica dust. The crisis over silicosis suddenly became a national issue, as seen in this article in the radical newspaper Peoples' Press . In 1936 congressional hearings on the Gauley Bridge disaster, it was revealed that company officials and engineers wore masks to protect themselves when they visited the tunnel, but they failed to provide masks for the tunnelers themselves, even when the workers requested them.

This animation is a montage of short clips taken from animations the SVS has created over the past 15 years.

In this lesson, students use a guided reading to look at a report on the status of education in North Carolina in 1869, and discuss the reasons given then for why the Governor and Legislature should support educating North Carolina's children. They are provided an opportunity to compare and contrast the 1869 document against their own ideas about the civic duty to attend school through age sixteen, and its relative value to the state and the country.

This site recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s. This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians convinced the U.S. Congress not to annex the islands. But months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the Spanish-American War began. The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base.

Primary source images, standards correlation, and teaching activities are included in this resource.

A short six question quiz to see how much you know about 18th Century Ireland

Examine this graph from FRONTLINE/NOVA: What's Up with the Weather? Web site to see dramatic increases in three greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years.

The documents selected for this exhibit are primary sources that historians and other researchers study when they write about historical events. They are a selection from the files created or received by Federal agencies in or near San Francisco at the time of the disaster. They contain eyewitness testimony of the damage of the earthquake, the ensuing fires, and the desolation that was left in their wake.

Through viewing and discussion of the video and investigation of the Web resources, students will develop a deeper understanding of rationing and the mathematics needed in a WWII household.

The 2008 Summer Teachers Conference focused on the year 1948. Lesson plans created by teachers attending the conference and powerpoint presentations delivered by speakers are presented on this site.

This video adapted from the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, explores what happened during the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 through original footage, first-person accounts, and animations illustrating plate tectonics.

In this animation of total ozone, the luminance values of the colors bounding areas of missing data are used in interpolating over these regions. The missing data are mapped to the grayscale portion of the color map.

In this animation of total ozone, the luminance values of the colors bounding areas of missing data are used in interpolating over these regions. The missing data are mapped to the grayscale portion of the color map.