Mark Twain, best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was born 175 years ago

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910) known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Twain was popular, and his wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Mark Twain and the American West
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand the distinctively American voice of Mark Twain;
- see how Twain's writing was molded by his adventures in the American West and how his work has since shaped our perceptions of the West;
- understand the rapid Westward expansion of America in the 19th century.
Grade Level: 8-12
Subject: Language Arts / History
Materials: Copies of Mark Twain's Roughing It, computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Up to three class periods
Provided by: PBS (Author: Joan Brodsky Schur, Village Community School in New York City)
Link: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/lesson_plans/lesson02.htm

 

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species Was Published 151 Years Ago

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime, but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's theory is simply stated in the introduction of his book: "As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Evolution
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) has been accepted but also debated.
- Many scientists—botanist, zoologists, geologists, geneticists—have contributed to the study of evolution.
Concepts / Vocabulary: naturalist, evolution, natural selection, heredity, artificial selection, mutate, sociobiology, genetic code, eugenics.
Grade Level: 9-12
Subject: Biology / Animals
Materials: Reference materials about the history of evolution, computers with access to the Internet; roll paper, rulers, index cards.
Time Needed: Two class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Author: Lisa Lyle Wu, science teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia.)
Link: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/greatbooks-originofspecies/

 

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species Was Published 151 Years Ago

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime, but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's theory is simply stated in the introduction of his book: "As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Evolution
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) has been accepted but also debated.
- Many scientists—botanist, zoologists, geologists, geneticists—have contributed to the study of evolution.
Concepts / Vocabulary: naturalist, evolution, natural selection, heredity, artificial selection, mutate, sociobiology, genetic code, eugenics.
Grade Level: 9-12
Subject: Biology / Animals
Materials: Reference materials about the history of evolution, computers with access to the Internet; roll paper, rulers, index cards.
Time Needed: Two class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Author: Lisa Lyle Wu, science teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia.)
Link: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/greatbooks-originofspecies/

 

The U.S. Congress Held Its First Session in Washington, D.C., 210 Years Ago

A few milestones:

First Continental Congress - September 5, 1774
Second Continental Congress - May 10, 1775
Articles of Confederation - March, 1781
Constitutional Convention - May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia
U.S. Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C. - November 17, 1800

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Congressional Committees and the Legislative Process
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand the legislative process of the United States Congress;
- examine the role that Congressional committees play in legislative process.
Concepts / Vocabulary: Standing Committee, Select Committee, Joint Committee, Conference Committee, written comment, hearing, markup, report.
Grade Level: 10-12
Subject: U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government
Time Needed: Two to three class periods
Provided by: EDSITEment
Year: 2002
Link: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=284

The tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen is discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter

Howard Carter (1874 – 1939) was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist, noted as a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun. He was financially backed by Lord Carnarvon.

On 4 November 1922, Carter's water carrier found the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb, by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. Carter made the famous "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold and ebony treasures were still in place. He did not yet know at that point whether it was "a tomb or merely a cache", but he did see a promising sealed doorway between two sentinel statues.

On 16 February 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway, and found that it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: King Tut's Treasures
Objectives:
- explore how artifacts found in an ancient Egyptian tombs can be used to paint a picture of daily life in ancient Egypt;
- compare modern "artifacts" to those of ancient Egypt.
Grade Level: K-2
Subject: Geography, world history, anthropology
Materials: Globe or world map or Africa map, computers with Internet access, overhead projector
Handouts: Worksheet
Time Needed: Three to four hours
Provided by: National Geographic Society
Link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/06/gk2/kingtut.html