I’ve written before about the excellent materials and staff development put out by the Library of Congress for teaching with primary sources. I’m excited to report that they have had a science teacher on fellowship this year pulling together resources and activities to support science standards. They are offering 3 upcoming online seminars on using the material. If you have any interest in history, nature of science, or unraveling historical mysteries in the science classroom, consider attending one of these seminars (or at least registering, so you will receive a link to the recording afterwards).

April 12^th 4:00 – 5:00 ET  

Innovations with Sanborn Maps – Sanborn Maps Navigator 

The Sanborn Maps Collection from the Library of Congress consists of over 50,000 historical atlases, with around 32,000 of them currently available online. These richly detailed maps offer many approaches for study and research for the classroom. Join us for an hour-long session with Jackie Katz to explore the collection and examine an innovative application called Sanborn Maps Navigator, which encourages exploration of and engagement with the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps collection. The session will highlight the work of several educators and provide participants time to develop connections between the collection and their own classroom. 

April 19^th 4:00 – 5:00 ET 

Innovations with Digitized Newspapers – Newspaper Navigator 

Chronicling America, a database of 16+ million digitized historic newspapers, is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program, itself a partnership of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Join us for an hour-long session and learn how users can now browse the collection’s thousands of digitized historical newspapers using an interactive map and timeline recently launched by the Library of Congress or an image search application developed by the 2020 Innovator-in-Residence. These tools allow the rich Chronicling America database to be searched via time, location, and image. This session will explore the tools and highlight innovative ways these tools can be used in the classroom. Participants will have time to explore the resources and develop connections between the collection and their own classroom. 

April 26^th 4:00 – 5:00 ET 

A Conversation with Jackie Katz on Innovations for Using LOC in the STEM Classroom 

Join us for a discussion with Jacqueline Katz, the 2022-2023 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress. Jackie will share the highlights of her year at the LOC and focus specifically on how she plans to use datasets and oral histories in the classroom. She will share examples of how using primary sources will help her to provide context to phenomena in high school biology and chemistry classes. Participants will discuss how using primary sources can elicit student conversations about scientific ethics and the nature of science.