Inquiry Unit
Information Theory
One of the traits that makes humans unique from other animals is our consciousness, the fact that we can remember concrete ideas, both actual memories and abstract thoughts. These brain activities are…
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Inquiry Unit
Electronic Music
Chances are good that you and your friends don’t get your music in the same way that your parents did. Their generation was much more likely to hear a new song on the radio and go out to Sam Goody's…
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Inquiry Unit
Skyscrapers
The symbol of growth in China and India of the early 21st century is the proliferation of skyscrapers. This was also the symbol of urbanization in the early 20th century U.S. How did this come about? …
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Inquiry Unit
Electric Lighting
When was the last time you lived without electric lights? Maybe a thunderstorm, hurricane, or blizzard caused a power outage in your neighborhood. Maybe you live in a village without electric lights. …
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Refrigerated Rail Car
Some technology is so woven into our lives that we barely notice it. We go about our daily routines without giving it a thought, yet, were it not for these advancements, our routines would be very dif…
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Inquiry Unit
UAV (Drones)
Almost since the dawn of warfare, armies have sought ways to inflict the most damage on their enemies at the lowest cost to their own troops. Technologies from catapults to cannons have been developed…
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Radio
The invention of wireless telegraphy-radio-at the end of the 19th century by Marconi and others made it possible to communicate with anyone, anywhere, around the globe. It soon became apparent, howeve…
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Inquiry Unit
Triremes
In the fall of 480 BCE, Xerxes, the King of Persia, attacked Greece on land and at sea. While the land battle that ended with a Spartan stand to the last man at Thermopylae, has been burned into the c…
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Inquiry Unit
Early Maritime Navigation
The open sea is a never-ending desert of water – the same in all directions. How did ancient mariners cross the ocean without GPS? The principles behind “modern” innovations used by our GPS-enab…
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Inquiry Unit
The Printing Press
The Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter, the 2016 Presidential Campaign, are all recent events, which were driven by social media. Though Twitter was only recently invented, the movement of technology-dri…
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