Effect of Ecology on the History of New England

The Science and Society modules encourage social studies and civics classes to examine the relationship between biology and democracy. This relationship is all the more interesting because democracy is inherently political in nature, while science is empirical. Democracy places power in the hands of the citizens through the exercise of majority rule while respecting minority rights. Science then presents democracy with ideas that have demonstrated their value through testing and experimentation.

Introduction to Science and Society Modules: This brief PowerPoint module (11 slides) is recommended to be shown to students before any Science and Society module is used in class. The presentation stresses that the modules take no positions on the questions posed by the particular module, but are meant to act as springboards to student discussions of those questions.

The Effect of Ecology on the History of New England is a module based on the award winning book by William Chronon, Changes in the Land. This ecological history of colonial New England examines the interaction of colonists and Native Americans from an ecological perspective. Teachers can borrow NOOKs containing an electronic version of the book and guided reading worksheets.

The modules are freely available for download.