This project has involved an unusually large number of active participants. Some have provided funding, some inspiration and organizational support, and some ideas, lesson plans, and time. They include:
The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) began working on this curriculum about ten years ago to bring understanding about the history of technology to a wider audience. SHOT was founded in 1958 to encourage the study and teaching of the history of technology and its relations with society and culture. It is a nonprofit, independent, interdisciplinary organization concerned with the history of technological devices and processes and with the relations of technology to politics, economics, labor, business, the environment, public policy, science, and the arts. Its members include not only academic historians and museum curators but also engineers and scientists, anthropologists, librarians, political scientists, economists, and teachers. SHOT publishes a journal, Technology and Culture and welcomes inquiries about membership or subscriptions at the SHOT site.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Education and Human Resources Directorate funded the original writing of the curriculum in an effort to attract women and students of color to careers in science and engineering. NSF has been a pioneer in supporting the writing of creative classroom materials.
The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, funded the creation of this Website. Founded in 1995 through a generous gift from the Lemelson Foundation, the Center's mission is to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation, to encourage inventive creativity in young people, and to foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States. The Lemelson Center views this curriculum project and this Website as an opportunity to fulfill its mission to:
You can learn more about the Lemelson Center's many activities, especially those aimed at teachers and students, by going to the Lemelson site.
An amazing group of social studies, science and vocational education teachers, and professional historians wrote all the materials you see on this site. We worked together during several summers and we tested materials in our classrooms. Two historians, Susan Smulyan, Associate Professor, Department of American Civilization, Brown University, and Bruce Sinclair, Professor Emeritus, Georgia Institute of Technology, played important roles in conceiving the project and completing the work of their collaborators.
A Teacher Advisory Group to the Website, funded by the Educational Outreach Fund, Smithsonian Institution, provided feedback and testing of the Web pages, meeting with the designers in person and interacting with each other on a virtual "forum."
The Center for Children and Technology (CCT) of the Education Development Center translated and edited the original curriculum materials for the Web and designed this Website. A research and development organization established to explore the use of electronic technologies in the lives of children and educators, CCT has made a significant contribution to the materials you see here. To see other examples of their work, go to the CCT website.
The project's goals are to:
In 1987, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), particularly the members who were professional historians working in museums and universities, conceived a project that would allow us to talk to an even wider public audience about technology and its history. As citizens and as teachers, we remain concerned with education at all levels and hoped we could help teachers and students better understand American history. SHOT received help from three organizations who shared our goals: the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; and the Center for Children and Technology (CCT), a part of the Education Development Center.
With a grant from the NSF, SHOT gathered a group of college teachers, museum curators, and middle and high school social studies, science, and vocational education teachers for two summer workshops (and several follow-up meetings) to develop interdisciplinary curriculum materials that would particularly interest women and all students of color in careers in science and technology through classes, such as social studies, in which there is no math filter. The resulting curriculum, "Whole Cloth: Discovering Science and Technology Through American History," traces the history of textiles through eight modular units, each with between five and ten exercises, a teacher's essay, and a bibliography.
SHOT joined with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation to explore publishing possibilities for this material. The Lemelson Center's mission - to record the past; to broaden our understanding of history; and to look towards the future by developing programs aimed at engaging young people in the study and exploration of invention and innovation - led us to the World Wide Web. Both SHOT and the Lemelson Center are excited about using this developing technology to bring materials about the history of technology and invention to teachers and students.
In the Web phase of this project, SHOT and the Lemelson Center gathered a new group of museum professionals, teachers, and university-based historians, to collaborate on preparing the materials for cyberspace. This Teacher Advisory Group was funded through a grant from the Educational Outreach Fund of the Smithsonian Institution. CCT consulted with SHOT, the Lemelson Center and the Teacher Advisory Group while conceiving and designing the Web pages that follow.
This site contains three of the eight units originally written in this project:
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| Unit 2: Early Industrialization | Unit 3: True Colors | Unit 7: Synthetic Fibers |
In the future, we hope to obtain additional funding that will allow us to put the other units on this Website. In addition, we hope to make the site more interactive, inviting teachers and students to join museum staff members, historians of technology, and people who have used the site in their classrooms to create a community of learners who are interested in the history of technology and invention.
Principal Investigators
Susan Smulyan, Brown University
Bruce Sinclair, Georgia Institute of Technology
Co-Principal Investigators
Gail Fowler Mohanty, Slater Mill Historic Site
Lawrence Gross, University of Lowell
SHOT Members
Gail Cooper, Lehigh University
Carolyn Goldstein, National Building Museum
Steven Lubar, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian
Institution
Patrick Malone, Brown University
Teresa Murphy, George Washington University
Sandra Norman, Florida Atlantic University
Robert Rosenberg, Thomas Edison Papers
Teachers
Thomas Anderson, P.K. Yonge Laboratory School, Gainesville, Florida
Mark Etheridge, Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School, Salt Lake City, Utah
Michael Hughes, Methuen High School, Methuen, Massachusetts
Carlita Kosty, Rayburn Middle School, San Antonio, Texas
David Levy, Concord Middle School, Concord, Massachusetts
Marilyn McClain, Palmetto Middle School, Miami, Florida
Dick McQueen, Clayton Valley High School, Concord, California
William Rahr, Sammamish High School, Bellevue, Washington
Diane Rosenberg, The Park School, Baltimore, Maryland
Alan Stauffacher, Monroe High School, Monroe, Wisconsin
Lemelson Teacher-Advisors/NMAH Staff
Lisa Abrams, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke, Virginia
Karen Kenna, Thoreau Middle School, Vienna, Virginia
Eric Klopfenstein, Ormond Stone Middle School, Centreville, Virginia
Carlita Kosty, Rayburn Middle School, San Antonio, Texas
David Levy, Concord Middle School, Concord, Massachusetts
Alan Stauffacher, Monroe High School, Monroe, Wisconsin
Lemelson Center staff
Joyce Bedi
Sondra Berger
Tim Grove
Michael Judd
Claudine Klose
Center for Children and Technology staff
Jebeze Alexander
Margaret Honey
Alison Matthews
Terri Meade
John Parris
Bob Spielvogel
Comments and questions to
the Lemelson Center:lemcen@si.edu
Last Revision: 2/15/05