This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they learn about the Fighting Dinos fossil. The site opens with a vivid account of the dinosaurs' fight. "Explore the Fighting Dinos Through a Paleontologist's Eyes" gives students an up-close look at the fossil, with notes about the clues it's given scientists. "How Did They Die, Anyway?" presents details about the three theories that have been developed about how the fighting pair was buried alive. "Bone Up Your Fossils" challenges students to match up eight dinosaur fossil photos and descriptions.

This Web site, created to complement an American Museum of Natural History exhibition, reports on one of the most famous fossil finds in the world (the fighting dinosaurs of Mongolia) and other ancient animal fossils discovered in the Gobi Desert.

Examines interactions across the Eurasian continent between Russians, Chinese, Mongolian nomads, and Turkic oasis dwellers during the last millennium and a half. As empires rose and fell, religions, trade, and war flowed back and forth continuously across this vast space. Britain and Russia competed for power over Eurasia in the "Great Game" of geopolitics in the nineteenth century, just as China, Russia, and others did in the twentieth century. Today, the fall of the Soviet Union and China's reforms have opened new opportunities for cultural interaction. Topics include: the religious traditions of Central Asian Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucianism; caravans and travelers like Marco Polo and Rabban Sauma, the first Chinese to travel to the West; and nomadic conquest and imperialist competition, past and present. Source materials include primary documents, travelogues, films, music, and museum visits.

This Web article is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here they meet two Museum scientists who go fossil hunting every year in the Gobi, and view the duo's scrapbook. The article begins by introducing students to Mike Novacek, who wants to understand which prehistoric fossils are related to modern mammals, and Mark Norell, who is trying to figure our how certain dinosaurs evolved into modern birds. Students also learn about Roy Chapman Andrews, a naturalist who led the Museum's first expeditions to the Gobi in the 1920s. In addition to seeing photos and illustrations from the Gobi scrapbook, students learn about the journey to Mongolia, discover the challenges of fossil hunting, and see what a typical day is like for these scientists.

This course will introduce the student to the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to the twenty-first century. The course will emphasize the encounters and exchanges between the Islamic world and the West. By the end of the course, the student will understand how Islam became a sophisticated and far-reaching civilization and how conflicts with the West shaped the development of the Middle East from the medieval period to the present day. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: identify and describe the nature of pre-Islamic society, culture, and religion. They will also be able to describe the subsequent rise of the prophet Muhammad and his monotheistic religion, Islam; identify and describe the elements of Islamic law, religious texts and practices, and belief systems; identify and describe the rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties in the Middle East. Students will also be able to compare and contrast the two empires; identify and describe the emergence of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain. Students will also be able to analyze the conflicts between Muslims and Christians on the Iberian Peninsula; identify and describe the Crusades. They will be able to describe both Muslim and Christian perceptions of the holy wars; identify and describe the impact of the Mongol invasions on the Middle East; compare and contrast the Ottoman and Safavid empires; analyze the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of European imperialism/domination of the Middle East in the 1800s; identify and describe how and why European powers garnered increased spheres of influence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I; analyze and describe the rise of resistance and independence movements in the Middle East; identify and describe the rise of Islamic nationalism and the emergence of violent anti-Western sentiment; analyze (and synthesize) the relationship between the Middle East and the West between the 600s and the present day; analyze and interpret primary source documents that elucidate the exchanges and conflicts between the Islamic world and the West over time. (History 351)