Science and Technology

Parks in Science History is a series of articles and videos made in cooperation with graduate students from various universities. They highlight the roles that national parks have played in the history of science and, therefore, the world's intellectual heritage.

This a series of lesson plans about the WWII home front, focused on Los Alamos County, New Mexico, as an American World War II Heritage City. The lessons contain photographs, readings, and primary sources, with optional extension activities. The lessons highlight specific contributions (such as weapons research, changing geography, and Native American lives during the war). The lessons also connect to larger themes and understandings of the US home front during wartime.

This is a series of lessons about the World War II home front, focused on the Tri-Cities, Washington as an American World War II Heritage City. Its impacts to home front efforts includes its contributions to The Manhattan Project (the Hanford Site), Naval Air Station Pasco, and Big Pasco. The lessons highlight specific contributions but connect to larger themes and understandings of the U.S. home front during wartime. This series is a part of Teaching with Historic Places.

These lesson plans help students understand the significance of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, an American World War II Heritage City that was central to work of the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb. Learners can use primary and secondary sources and photographs to explore the experiences of workers at Oak Ridge and the long-term impact of the Manhattan Project on the town. The series was created by educator Sarah Nestor Lane.

Chien-Shiung Wu is a pioneer and pivotal figure in the history of physics. An immigrant to the United States from China, she did important work for the Manhattan Project and in experimental physics. Her crucial contribution to particle physics was, however, ignored by the Nobel Prize committee when it awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Thomas C. Reed was the 11th Secretary of the Air Force under Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Reed's first assignment for the Air Force in 1957 was as part of the Minuteman missile reentry vehicle design team.

Charlotte Hill discovered many new species of fossils on her ranch. Some were perfectly preserved. Her fossils ended up in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, as well as museums at Harvard and Yale. In recognition of her efforts, several fossils were named in her honor. Her home became part of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

Mary Golda Ross was the first Native American woman to be a professional engineer. In 1952, she was one of the 40 founding members of Lockheed's secret Advanced Development Program, known as the Skunk Works. Much of the work she did there remains classified.

This interpretive kiosk is located at N. Aliante Pkwy & W. Moonlight Falls Ave. The kiosk describes the history of scientific research at Tule Springs, safety tips, park regulations, and a map of the monument.  This area features relatively flat terrain, creosote desert scrub habitat, and views of the Las Vegas and Sheep ranges.

Thomas Hariot was a leading scientist and scholar of sixteenth-century England. Having graduated from St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford in 1580 with a concentration in astronomy and mathematics, he was soon employed by Sir Walter Raleigh to assist in the colonization of the New World. His documentation of the New World proved invaluable to Europe's understanding of this mysterious land.