Students learn the basics of acid/base chemistry in a fun, interactive way by studying instances of acid/base chemistry found in popular films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and National Treasure. Students learn what acids, bases and indicators are and how they can be used, including invisible ink. They also learn how engineers use acids and bases every day to better our quality of life. Students' interest is piqued by the use of popular culture in the classroom.

Cartoon print shows Union troops after the Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War from the point of view of a copperhead, that is, a northern Democrat supporting Confederate troops. The image is keyed to eighteen points in the image: Beauregard's headquarters, Jefferson Davis' headquarters, Johnston's headquarters, Elzy's Maryland battery, General McDowell, General Tyler, The Bull's Run, Fire Zouaves, New York 19th Regiment, Sherman's battery, Ely member of Congress, barricade for member of Congress, Lovejoy & Company, Ladies as spectators, Riddle Brown & Company, Blenker's Brigade, Senator Wilson, and the U.S. Dragoon.|Lith. fr[?] A. Pfott.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

An attack on James K. Polk's attempts to undermine Winfield Scott's military efforts and reputation through his handling of the Mexican War in April 1847. Shortly after Scott's victory at Cerro Gordo, Polk dispatched State Department official Nicholas Trist to Mexico to negotiate peace with the Mexican government. The artist views the move, as did many contemporaries, as motivated by political concerns about the Whig general's presidential ambitions. Scott, on a large hill at right, offers a steaming plate of soup to departing Mexican commander Santa Anna, who rides away on horseback. (For the soup allusion see "Distinguished Military Operations," no. 1846-15). From a ravine behind Scott, Polk goads Trist as he aims a water hose at the general. The hose is fueled by a pump operated by two boys in the background. In the distance American troops engage the Mexicans on the hills near Cerro Gordo. In the upper left appears the dialogue: Scott: "General Santa Anna!! do stop and take 'a hasty plate of soup?'" Santa Anna: "I thank you, Sir, your soup's too hot-I must be off!" Polk: "Trist, take care & cool 'old Hasty's' soup, before "our friend" meets him again." Trist: "Your Excellency will pardon me, but I've tried in vain to cool 'Old Hasty's' soup." Polk: "Then put out 'Old Hasty's' fire, or "that fatal soup will burn our fingers yet!" Trist: "Your excellency would do well to send 'Old Hasty' home and give "our friend" 'Pillow' for his Comfort." The last reference was to Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, an incompetent but a favorite of Polk, whose antagonism toward Scott was public knowledge, particularly after Cerro Gordo.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 89.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1847-2.

A slightly modified version of "Battle of Cerro Gordo" (no. 1847-2), in all likelihood produced by the same lithographer. The scene is quite similar, except for the inclusion of the later battle (the Battle of Churubusco, fought on August 20, 1847) in the background, and the addition of the figure of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow on the left. As in the earlier cartoon Scott chases Mexican commander Santa Anna away with a steaming plate of soup. Trist aims his hose at Scott, but its spray falls short of him. Polk remonstrates to General Pillow, who holds a pillow in his hands. The dialogue reflects mounting tensions between Scott and Pillow, Polk's friend and favorite in the field: Scott: "General, O do "now" stop and try my 'hasty plate of soup?'" Santa Anna: "Never, no never again, it's ginger tea & quite too hot for me!" Polk: "Trist, I told you, Sir, to throw cold water on that 'hasty plate of soup!'" Trist: "Your Excellency! I've tried my best in vain--that soup I cannot reach." Polk: "My dear Pillow do advance and give my friend another passport [alluding to Polk's mistake in allowing Santa Anna's return from exile in 1846], with something soft whereon to rest his weary head. He did not ask "such soup" from me!" Pillow: "Rely on me, my Cousin Polk, I'll cool that soup as 'Leonidas' cooled the Persians at Thermopola." Polk: "It wont do! 'Old Hasty' must be stopped--My honor's gone with that brave Mexican--Cool soup would suit him best, he'd sip, and sip and sip again & give out his Pronunciamentos--his honor save, and my ends gain, 'Old Hasty' to disgrace, but alas! were both undone--but no! 'Old Hasty' shall be made to pay the cost of his audacity--I'll strike him down & send him home!" Pillow: "My dear Cousin you know you have the power, 'tis but to use it, & 'tis done, just as you say."|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 89.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1847-3.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866 by L.C. Mix & Co. in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of New York.|Inscribed in ink upper left: Entd. & Deposd. October 9, 1866.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

Essential Question: How did The Beatles establish a new paradigm for the image of "the star," and how did that image support their global success?

Another venomous attack on the Lincoln administration by the artist of "The Commander-in-Chief Conciliating the Soldier's Votes, no. 1864-31," and "The Sportsman Upset by the Recoil of His Own Gun," (no. 1864-32). Here Lincoln and his cabinet are shown in a disorderly backstage set, preparing for a production of Shakespeare's "Othello." Lincoln (center) in blackface plays the title role. He recites, "O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! I am not valiant neither:--But why should honour outlive honesty? Let it go all." Behind Lincoln two men, one with his leg over a chair, comment on Lincoln's reading. "Not quite appropriately costumed, is he?" comments the first. The second replies, "Costumed, my dear Sir? Never was such enthusiasm for art:--Blacked himself all over to play the part, Sir!" These may be Republicans Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens. Before them is a wastebasket of discarded documents, including the Constitution, Crittenden Compromise, Monroe Doctrine, "Webster's Speeches," "Decisions of Supreme Court," and "Douglass." At left five ballerinas stand beneath a playbill advertising "Treasury Department, A New Way to Pay Old Debts . . . Raising the Wind . . . Ballet Divertissement." Near their feet is a pile of silver and plate, "Properties of the White House." They listen to a fiddler who, with his back turned to the viewer, stands lecturing before them. At right Secretary of War Edwin Mcm.asters Stanton instructs a small troop of Union soldiers waiting in the wings to ". . . remember, you're to go on in the procession in the first Act and afterwards in the Farce of the Election." One soldier protests, "Now, see here, Boss that isn't fair. We were engaged to do the leading business." Nearby an obviously inebriated Secretary of State William Seward sits at a table with a bottle, muttering, "Sh--shomethin's matt'r er my little bell: The darned thing won't ring anyway cĚ_Ąonfixit'." Seward reportedly once boasted that he could have any individual arrested merely by ringing a bell. He was widely criticized for his arbitrary imprisonment of numerous civilians during the war. On the floor near Seward sits Lincoln's running mate Andrew Johnson, a straw dummy, with a label around his ankle, "To be left till called for." At far right Navy Secretary Gideon Welles slumbers, holding a paper marked "Naval Engagement, Sleeping Beauty, All's Well That Ends Well." In the background abolitionist editor Horace Greeley bumbles about moving scenery and complaining, "O bother! I can't manage these cussed things." Union general Benjamin F. Butler (directly behind Lincoln), dressed as Falstaff, recites, "We that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus! I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought!" He holds a sign "Benefit . . . Falstaff . . . Beauty and the Beast." By this time Butler had achieved notoriety as a dissolute plunderer. To Butler's right a man (who might be the stage manager) orders the crew, "Get ready to shift there 'ere Flats for the Temple of Liberty." The artist of this and nos. 1864-30 and -31 was an exceptionally able draftsman. Judging from the acidity of these satires, he may have been a Southerner, perhaps a Baltimorean. The only satires of the time that compare in artistic quality and political venom are those of Adalbert Volck.|Signed with monogram: CAL?|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 141.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1864-32.

An illustrated sheet music cover for campaign music honoring Constitutional Union party candidates John Bell and Edward Everett. The candidates' bust portraits are framed in floral and acanthus tracery. In the upper right a streamer with stars and stripes hangs on the twigs which sprout from the rusticated wooden letters of Everett's name. Below is an arrangement of motifs, including an eagle with shield, a cannon, flags, and a fasces. In the distance (left) is a harbor with several ships.|Entered . . . 1860 by Firth, Pond & Co.|Sarony, Major & Knapp Liths. 449 Broadway, N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1860-17.

This class uses a range of literary texts to trace the growth of the vampire trope from its first appearance in English-language fiction in the early years of the nineteenth century. Centering on classic works by Lord Byron, John Polidori, Sheridan le Fanu, Bram Stoker, and others, we learn about the formation of the modern literary canon, the folklore of the undead, and the creation of one of the most prolific popular culture genres—vampire fiction—which reached its first apotheosis in Stoker’s masterwork, Dracula.

Another swipe at Whig candidate Winfield Scott's manipulation by antislavery Whigs Seward and Greeley. Here, Scott is a fly caught in a large web, spun by spiders Greeley (left) and Seward (right). Scott exclaims, "I think I've got myself into a hobble!" Greeley, hanging from a thread, decides, "I must hurry up & cover him with our slime as fast as possible!" Seward adds, "I hope he won't break through before I get him secured!" At lower left, Massachusetts Whig Daniel Webster and New York editor James Watson Webb look on. Webster remarks, "What an extraordinary web, Webb!" Webb replies, "Yes it's one of that crafty old spider Seward's and he has caught a large fly who wont get out Scot free--Can't you stir it up a little, Webster!"|Published by John Childs, 84 Nassau St. N. York.|Signed with monogram: EWC (Edward Williams Clay).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Davison, no. 204.|Weitenkampf, p. 107.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1852-30.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn the impacts of climate change on birds, explore the effectiveness of public art on climate change awareness, and synthesize informational texts into a persuasive or argumentative essay.

SCIENTIST NOTES: Bird species are suffering and facing extinction as a result of rising temperatures. Several species are slowly losing their range and changing shape and size. This lesson also establishes the possibility that a gradual rise in temperature could affect human survival, but it also gives students the opportunity to brainstorm and use their artistic talents to convey conservation strategies that would safeguard local wildlife and ecologically delicate species. This lesson is suggested for use in the classroom since the video, pictures, and materials are from reliable sources.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used to teach students close reading or note-taking strategies.
-This lesson can be used to focus on elements of persuasive or argumentative writing techniques.
-This lesson can be easily adapted for writing workshops and the peer editing process in a multi-day or mini-unit.
-This lesson can be done in the Spring or Fall when students can also observe local birds outside, or during state testing days as an independent or partner project.
-This lesson can be used as a stand-alone lesson or as a lesson in a unit on non-fiction, birds, geography, art, or research.
-Students are given voice and choice and can work independently or in pairs.
-Students explore various media and guide their own learning with options for breadth and depth.
-Students learn about local bird species in their neighborhood and region.
-Students have two different options to create their own artistic responses.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Teachers should be aware that the Audubon organization is named after John James Audubon and references his “complicated history” as an unrepentant slave owner and strong advocate for slavery. Students will explore this in the lesson, but teachers may want to preview the articles prior to the lesson.
-Students should have some basic understanding of citing sources and referencing multiple resources in writing.
-Students should have a basic understanding of the elements of persuasive or argumentative writing.
-Students should have access to devices with a strong internet connection.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Teachers can extend the research and writing portions of the lesson, using them to teach specific elements in persuasive or argumentative writing.
-Teachers can provide paragraph or essay structures, graphic organizers, brainstorming, or outline templates for students to use.
-Teachers can read one article in the Inspire section with the class as an anchor text or to model reading and note-taking strategies.
-English teachers can choose to make the artistic element a separate class period, an extension, or extra credit activity.
-Teachers can assign other articles from the Audubon website for extension activities.
-Social studies, civics, and economics classes can extend this topic to discuss social justice, socioeconomic status, and cultural impacts. Students can research and discuss how other activists’ “complicated” backgrounds have impacted their messaging.
-Music classes can listen to bird songs of birds from the Audubon website and compare the musicality and tonality of different bird songs in the same region.

Another parody of Van Buren administration efforts to end the long and costly Second Seminole War in Florida. The War Department was regularly subjected to public and congressional attacks for cruelty, waste, and incompetence in its prosecution of the war. It drew especially heavy fire for the introduction of Cuban bloodhounds to hunt the Seminoles in early 1840. (See "The Secretary of War," no. 1840-5). Several dandified soldiers lounge in a commodious tent as a corps of uniformed bloodhounds stand guard outside. Their standard says "Puppy Guard Sentinel." The soldiers are surrounded by luxury items like "Windsor Soap (soft)," cigars, and "eau de cologne," and one is fanned by an Indian squaw. One soldier remarks, brushing his long hair, "I say Major, as we are in no danger of losing our scalps, we may as well put our Soap locks on the Peace Establishment." Another, playing chess, says, "Since our new Allies from Cuba have joined us, we can have a quiet game of Chess without any fear of a check from our red friends in the Swamp." An older, pipe-smoking soldier laments, "Ah! the Army is not what it was! Where's the Hero of Tippecanoe." (He refers to Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison.)|Lith. & pub. by H.R. Robinson 52 Cortlandt St. N.Y. & Pennsa Ave Washington D.C.|Signed with monogram: HD (Henry Dacre?).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Fowble, no. 338.|Murrell, p. 144.|Weitenkampf, p. 59.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-6.

The cartoon pertains to some instance of corruption in the Van Buren administration. Van Buren shovels coins from a great pile into a bag held by a man (probably a federal judge), who urges him, "Matty fill up the shovel, you are not the first man, I have helped out of a dirty scrape what is a little bribery and corruption to us limbs of the law, I have been the means of clearing hundreds." At left wait two other men, called "Black" and "Cooper," holding bags. Black to Cooper: "I mean to take my mint drops to Hansells the broker and get depreciated paper for it. that will do to pay my landlady her bill and all my other expenses too." Cooper: "Black dont you think the judge will preach a good sermon for this. when he gets in Georgia. I say Matty dont you mean to count it. I wish I had brought a larger bag." Van Buren: "No Mr. Cooper I'm above numbers a shovel full or two more or less is of no consequence I will charge it all to the account of the Florida War [i.e., the expensive conflict with the Seminole Indians which dragged on throughout Van Buren's presidency]." "Black.C.C." is probably the work of Napoleon Sarony, given its affinity in draftsmanship and lithographic technique to his "The New Era or Effects of a Standing Army" (no. 1840-3).|Printed & published by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. N.Y. & Pennsa. Avenue Washington D.C.|Probably drawn by Napoleon Sarony.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 62.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-4.

In his book, Reclaiming the Black Past, author and professor Pero Dagbovie explains how black history is taught in schools and used in popular culture including movies like Green Book. He discussed criticism of the way history is shown and the points of views that are highlighted.

A Whig campaign song in praise of William Henry Harrison, illustrated with a rural tableau of the candidate's fabled log cabin on the Ohio River. The cabin stands in a clearing, and flies an American flag. A cider barrel is beside its open door, around which grows a vine. Outside, Harrison, in shirtsleeves and with his hand resting on a shovel, speaks with a drover or farmer whose ox wagon waits nearby. The drover raises a glass of cider. In the foreground is a plough, and in the background a man works on a rail fence. The song is "Respectfully Inscribed to all true Republicans in the United States."|Entered . . . 1840 by G.E. Blake . . . Eastern District of Pena.|Sinclair's Lith.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-15.

A diverse group of abolitionists try to drag an unwilling black man toward the left with a large gaff hook. Holding the hook are (left to right) an old hag, a Quaker man, and two other homely men. The hag declares, "How perverse our dear colored brother is, I shall break my wind if I pull much longer." The Quaker says, "Verily it is hard work to set this Ethiopian at liberty. I fear we must break his back before we can succeed." A woman behind him enjoins "Pull on brethren till you have broken every yoke." Another young woman (center) asks the black, "Don't you feel the blessings of liberty?" The black protests, "Bress my soul, Massa Robolition, why you kidnap me 'way from Massa Clay? Let poor nigger go 'bout his bizness, and hab his own way dis once, and I berry glad." The black struggles to join Henry Clay and Horace Greeley, on the right, who stand with hands joined. The elderly Clay stands leaning on his cane. Greeley, in top hat and white coat, points toward the right and advises Clay, "Don't look behind you, friend Harry, but come and see my crack article on the Tariff." Weitenkampf dates the cartoon 1851, on the basis of the reference to Greeley's support of trade protectionism. The apparent double entendre of the word "hook" in the title is puzzling.|Probably drawn by H. Bucholzer.|Published by Nathaniel Currier, New York?|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 102.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1851-7.

A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770. On the right a group of seven uniformed soldiers, on the signal of an officer, fire into a crowd of civilians at left. Three of the latter lie bleeding on the ground. Two other casualties have been lifted by the crowd. In the foreground is a dog; in the background are a row of houses, the First Church, and the Town House. Behind the British troops is another row of buildings including the Royal Custom House, which bears the sign (perhaps a sardonic comment) "Butcher's Hall." Beneath the print are 18 lines of verse, which begin: "Unhappy Boston! see thy Sons deplore, Thy hallowed Walks besmeared with guiltless Gore." Also listed are the "unhappy Sufferers" Saml Gray, Saml Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks, and Patrick Carr (killed) and it is noted that there were "Six wounded; two of them (Christr Monk & John Clark) Mortally."|Engrav'd Printed & Sold by Paul Revere Boston.|The print was copied by Revere from a design by Henry Pelham for an engraving eventually published under the title "The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre," of which only two impressions could be located by Brigham. Revere's print appeared on or about March 28, 1770.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Brigham, p. 41-57.|Cresswell, no. 246.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1770-1.|Published in: Viewpoints; a selection from the pictorial collections of the Library of Congress . . . Washington : Library of Congress, 1975, no. 56.|Exhibited in: Creating the United States, Library of Congress, 2008.

Another in the series of "bobalition" broadsides, marking the July 14 celebration of the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. (See no. 1819-2). The text, facetiously dated "Uly 14teenth 18 hundred and 30 tu," consists of a letter to "Captain Ookpate" from "Pomp Peters" and "Cezar Garbo" regarding the celebratory procession, along with notes on toasts, volunteers, etc. The broadside is illustrated with a cut of a standing black man facing right and another caricature of a strutting militiaman armed with a cutlass and broom.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Rei lly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1832-4.

This lesson focuses on Latin American immigration to New York City during the late 1940s and 50s and the effect it had on popular culture. Students investigate a 1940 U.S. Department of Agriculture film about Puerto Rico, a graph containing immigration data, an interview with bandleader Tito Puente, an array of clips featuring Latin dance music, and both mainstream Pop songs and Broadway showtunes revealing the "Latin tinge." As students examine these resources, they will consider and discuss the roles Latino artists played in bringing a Latin feel to American popular culture.

This lesson investigates how electrifying the guitar was a contributing factor to the emergence of a sound that came to define Rock and Roll and, to a large extent, mid-20th century American popular culture. Featuring content from the PBS Soundbreaking episode, "Going Electric," which includes the guitar playing of luminaries Charlie Christian, Pete Townsend, Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix, this lesson examines the spirit of curiosity, adaptation and invention that characterized the early 1950s and in the 1960s led to the guitar's emergence as a versatile and attractive instrument for musicians and as the quintessential Rock and Roll icon.