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This lesson introduces students to significant inventions of the late 19th century and examines the power of Congress to pass laws related to the granting of patents. It correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, government, language arts, and science.

This site makes available for viewing the nearly nine hundred images of modes of transportation taken by American photographer William Henry Jackson in North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The site allows searches by subject and Keyword, and gives archival information about it.

Explore some of the wonders of modern engineering in this video from the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York. Hear a diverse selection of engineers explain how things work.

From the framers of the Constitution, who were worried about books and pamphlets, to present-day stakeholders, who are concerned about DVDs, MP3s, and the Internet, the story of copyright law is an ongoing struggle to balance copyright holders' rights with and the public interest. New technologies constantly challenge that balance.

In this lesson, students will examine the historical relationship between copyright law and technological innovation in the U.S. Working in teams, they will research a technology and assess how it may have affected users and copyright holders, as well as whether or not a public controversy resulted from its use. With this historical context in mind, students will then examine current copyright policy debates about music downloading and file-sharing.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, a scientist, inspired by his daughter's science fair project, develops a synthetic tree to remove excess carbon dioxide from the air.

This game examines several of Thomas Edison's inventions: the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and electric light bulb. Students learn about his life and how to create their own light bulb.

This site provides facsimile reproductions of the handwritten patent application and its accompanying drawing, together with explanatory text and lesson plans. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences

This site provides a selection of more than 500 letters, lectures, photos, articles, and sound recordings related to the birth of the recording industry. Hear auctioneers, animal calls, musical instruments, and Native American songs, Italian songs, Swedish songs, and more. Berliner (1851-1929), an immigrant and largely self-educated man, was responsible for the development of the microphone and the flat recording disc and gramophone player.

Students use graph of historical data and research historical and societal events to determine and analyze trends in energy.

This site presents 1,600 color photos -- rural and small-town life, migrant labor, the Great Depression, railroads, military training, aircraft manufacturing, and mobilizing for World War II. A special feature, Collection Connections, provides ideas for learning about women in the war effort, New Deal work programs, farm workers, relief programs, and military training.

This site provides photos, letters, articles, and resources for learning about the history of flight -- aircraft and balloons, Alexander Graham Bell's aerodynamic studies, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Igor Sikorsky's helicopters, and Amelia Earhart.

This lesson presents the drawing and description that helped Joseph Glidden, a farmer from De Kalb, Illinois, win a patent for barbed wire in 1874. Glidden's design remains today the most familiar style of barbed wire. This site also examines the considerable impact of barbed wire on the economy, society, and politics in the West.

This site describes the first highway by which visitors could see the lakes, glaciers, alpine peaks, and meadows of Glacier National Park. Work on the 50-mile route, which connected the east and west sides of the park and crossed the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, began in 1921. The high technical standards of the Bureau of Public Roads (later the Federal Highway Administration) needed to be balanced with the commitment of the National Park Service to minimize damage to the landscape.

This course examines the history of MIT through the lens of the broader history of science and technology, and vice versa. The course covers the founding of MIT in 1861 and goes through the present, including such topics as William Barton Rogers, educational philosophy, biographies of MIT students and professors, intellectual and organizational development, the role of science, changing laboratories and practices, and MIT's relationship with Boston, the federal government, and industry. Assignments include short papers, presentations, and final paper. A number of classes are concurrent with the MIT150 Symposia.

This site tells the story of one of the 65 small ironworks operating in southeast Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. The Hopewell Furnace, located in forested hills and valleys along French Creek in Berks County, operated from 1771 to 1883. The furnace was the center of a self-contained hierarchical community of 200-300 people, all of whose work was related to the production of iron.

This site features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs and original magazine articles. Cylinder sound recordings will be added to this site in the near future. In addition, histories are given of Edison's involvement with motion pictures and sound recordings, as well as a special page focusing on the life of the great inventor.

Inventions and discoveries are all around us. In this unit, you will learn about some of these discoveries and the people behind them.

Students will use reference materials to make a baseball card of an inventor and their invention.