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Internet ResourcesScience and TechnologyTechnology

  • Abacus: The Art of Calculating with Beads - A history of the ancient calculator.
    http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/

  • American Experience: Technology in America - The PBS series examines the telephone, television, New York City subway, and forgotten inventors. The site also provides a technology timeline.
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/technology/

  • Calendars from the Sky - An exhibit exploring “the fascinating history of the human endeavor to organize our lives in accordance with the sun and stars.”
    http://webexhibits.org/calendars/index.html

  • Computer History Museum - A timeline, profiles of important people in computing history, pictures of artifacts, a newsletter, and other resources.
    http://www.computerhistory.org/

  • Devices of Wonder - An interactive presentation of 22 historical inventions that presaged such modern technologies as cyborgs, computers, and cinema. From the Getty Museum.
    http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/devices/choice.html

  • Digital Classroom Resources: Napier’s Bones - An interesting explication of a 16th-century technique using sticks and bones to multiply.
    http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/3/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=1514

  • Doodles, Drafts, and Designs - A fascinating look at the drawings of several industrial designers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
    http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/doodles/index.htm

  • Echo Research Center - Searchable data base on the history of science, technology, and medicine. From George Mason University.
    http://echo.gmu.edu/

  • Engines of Our Ingenuity - Transcripts and streaming audio for more than 2,400 of the radio programs on how art, technology, and ideas shape our culture. Many programs focus on invention and engineering. Hosted by John Lienhard of the University of Houston.
    http://www.uh.edu/engines/

  • Engineering Innovation – The National Academy of Sciences presents weekly podcast features “highlighting engineering innovations and stories that add technical context to issues in the news.”
    http://www.nae.edu/NAE/pubundcom.nsf/webviews/Engineering+Innovation+Podcast+and+Radio+Series?OpenDocument&count=3

  • Girls Are I.T. - The Girl Scouts present this site introducing information technology to girls, providing profiles of women in the I.T. field, a technology timeline, and predictions regarding the future of technology.
    http://www.girlsareit.org/default.asp

  • Great American Inventors: Using Nonfiction to Learn About Technology Inventions – A teacher-friendly lesson combining literacy activities with learning about historic inventions.
    http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=957

  • Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century - A history and timeline are presented for the 20 engineering feats regarded as the most significant of the past century by the National Academy of Engineering.
    http://www.greatachievements.org/

  • Hagley Digital Library – Among other resources, the Hagley Library presents an extensive archive of historic photographs depicting technologies from silk stockings to cannons.
    http://digital.hagley.org/

  • History and Heritage of Civil Engineering - The American Society of Civil Engineers provides timelines and background on achievements related to roads and railroads, dams, bridges, and other structures, as well as profiles of noted civil engineers.
    http://live.asce.org/hh/index.mxml

  • The History of Eating Utensils - The California Academy of Sciences presents a history of such common utensils as forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks.
    http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/utensil/index.html

  • History of Flight from Around the World - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics provides information on the history of flight, including a detailed timeline, country profiles, and profiles of pioneers.
    http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=307

  • History of Technology and Science - Listing of print and electronic resources maintained at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries.
    http://www.library.cmu.edu/Research/Humanities/History/hots.html

  • How Products Are Made - This site provides detailed information about how an array of products are manufactured. It also presents inventor biographies.
    http://www.madehow.com/index.html

  • IEEE History Center - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers presents a newsletter, transcripts of oral history interviews with engineers, and articles on the history of the field.
    http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/

  • Internet Resources for History of Science and Technology - Extensive set of links from the University of Delaware Library.
    http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/hsci/internet.htm

  • Intute: Science, Engineering, and Technology – A large data base of resources, including history resources, as well as tutorials.
    http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/

  • Inventor of the Week – MIT highlights a different inventor each week, providing insight into how inventions are developed and marketed.
    http://web.mit.edu/invent/i-main.html

  • Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation - Among the resources provided here are biographies of inventors, inventors' reflections on the importance of play in sparking creativity, an exhibit of industrial drawings illustrating how designers work, and lesson plans. From the Smithsonian.
    http://invention.smithsonian.org/home/

  • Marine Navigation in the Age of Exploration - An interactive site focusing on four ancient nautical instruments-the quadrant, astrolabe, octant, and chronometer. From the Seattle Art Museum.
    http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/interactives/spain/launchWin.htm

  • The Missing Link – Professor Elizabeth Green Musselman at Southwestern University provides a monthly podcast about the history of science, medicine, and technology. For each topic, Musselman also provides a list of additional reading.
    http://missinglinkpodcast.wordpress.com/

  • National Air and Space Museum - Numerous exhibits on the history of flight and space exploration from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
    http://www.nasm.si.edu/

  • National Building Museum - Through such exhibitions as “Washington: Symbol and City,” this site explores the history of architecture and engineering via structures.
    http://www.nbm.org/

  • National Inventors Hall of Fame - Information about noted inventors and the products they created.
    http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_0_0_hall_of_fame.asp

  • New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society - This journal from the Ethics and Public Policy Center aims to “to clarify the nation’s moral and political understanding of all areas of technology.”
    http://www.thenewatlantis.com/

  • Science and Engineering Encyclopedia - A British site with comprehensive information about topics related to engineering and science.
    http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/h/o/home/source.html

  • Social Criticism Review - This site from a nonprofit in the Netherlands provides a large data base of articles that focus on “the alienation between man, nature, and a dysfunctional scientific-technical complex.” Sample titles: “Lessons from the Luddites,” “The Hidden Culture of Science,” and “Does Technology Drive History?”
    http://www.socialcritic.org/

  • Solar Evolution - The California Solar Center provides a history of solar energy.
    http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/history.html

  • Tech Nation - Dr. Moira Gunn discusses technology and its impact on society in this weekly public radio program.
    http://www.technation.com/

  • Technology and Culture – Selected articles from the journal of the Society for the History of Technology are available here.
    http://etc.technologyandculture.net/about/

  • Technology Review – MIT provides this journal of news related to technology from which insights into the nature of technology and its relationship to culture can be gained.
    http://www.technologyreview.com/index.aspx

  • They Made America - The stories of 12 innovators, accompanied by primary sources, teaching materials, and directions for conducting an “Innovators Tournament.” From PBS station WGBH.
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/index.html

  • Video Game Revolution - This PBS site provides a history of gaming, insights into how video games are created, and analysis of the effects of gaming.
    http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/index.html

  • Walk Through Time - The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides an illustrated history of the technology of time-keeping.
    http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html

  • Wayback - The producers of the PBS series The American Experience have created this website for young people. Among its features are a look at the history of flight and an examination of technology in 1900.
    http://pbskids.org/wayback/index.html

  • The Why Files – Based at the University of Wisconsin Madison, The Why Files “explores the science, math and technology behind the news of the day.”
    http://whyfiles.org/

  • Wired Science - This site, a companion to a new PBS series, provides “exploded” views of technologies, interviews with innovators, and other resources.
    http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/

  • Workshop of the World - This site from the West Midlands region of England provides an interesting lens into the history of invention and the Industrial Revolution.
    http://www.workshopoftheworld.co.uk/

  • Your Place in Time - An exhibit that shows the everyday technologies that affected five generations in 20th-century America: the progressive generation, the war generation, baby boomers, gen x, and the next generation. From the Henry Ford Museum.
    http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/ypit/index.html

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Last updated 10/24/2008