STEMvisions Blog

The British are coming

A century ago, the jungles of India were teeming with 45,000 tigers. The Indian people and tigers lived together in harmony, at least for the most part. Tiger hunts took place but were not common. This all changed when the British arrived in India, bringing with them their love of hunting. Tiger hunting became a royal sport soon after.

One maharaja was reported to have killed 1,200 tigers. Image: National Museum of Asian Art, accession number S1990.73.

Dr. Jennifer Stern is a Space Scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Katya Vines, a Science Curriculum Developer at the Smithsonian Science Education Center, recently interviewed Jen about her role on the Mars Curiosity Rover team and her path to becoming a space scientist. Some of Jen's answers may surprise you!

What was your favorite class in school?

You may know that the Smithsonian Natural History Museum contains the Hope Diamond. You may not be aware of one of the museum's other gems, the Cullman Library. The Cullman library is part of Smithsonian Libraries network and contains a collection of 15,000 natural history books published prior to 1840. One of the strengths of the collection is the several hundred rare botany books, many of which contain beautiful hand-colored illustrations. However, these books are not just works of art.

As teachers across America contend with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), many are no doubt asking themselves whether these are really any different from previous standards. One way to answer this question is to look at the crosscutting concepts: eight broad concepts that transcend disciplines in science.

As an example, look at the crosscutting concept, Patterns: