History of sciences through three portraits (LS-FR-143)

This scenario uses the resources available in the Europeana Repository in two different ways.

First, they are historical resources to be studied by the sudents as “first hand” documents. To do so, the students shall be using skills that are part of the historical method.

Second, they are online digitalized documents that are curated and published by institutions and shared under precise copyrights rules. The students shall then be learning how to deal with their legal status.

The topic we study in this scenario is the history of sciences, focusing on the 17th and 18th centuries. Using Europeana for such a topic is fully relevant, because sciences – at that time- were buidling up at a European scale. To study this process, we focus on three figures : the Italian Galileo Galilei, the English Thomas Newcomen and the French Emilie du Châtelet.

For example, this last figure was : a woman scientist, a member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna, also the translator of Newton’s works, and a member of the court of the Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński during his exile in Nancy.

This learning scenario was designed with three goals in mind : stimulate collaborative work; design and publish a digitalized work, and develop the students understanding on this key period of history. In other words, this period announced major changes for Europe and the World in the 19th century, were taking shape in both economical, social and political aspects.

Below is the link to the Pearltrees page showing the Europeana resources used for this work.

http://www.pearltrees.com/profcdj/developpement-europeana/id24252831