Short assignment for Week 2:

Please go to Valley Library and head to the first floor compact shelves, where the older serials [journals] are stored.

Here's what I'd like you to do:

1. Choose among the following journals:
American Journal of Science Q1A5 [a general-interest journal; all fields]
Annals of Natural History Q1A6 [biology]
Popular Science Monthly Q1P6 [for educated audiences; all fields]

Nature Q1N2 [general science; a British publication
widely read in the U.S.]


2. Select a journal edition published around 1900 – let's say, from 1890 to 1910.

3. Spend a few moments perusing the journal: what do you find most interesting about it? How are the articles written? What kinds of research are being reported? Do these articles seem different from those that report scientific research at present, and if so, how?

4. Select one article in particular and prepare a brief summary of it (say a full paragraph), keeping in mind the questions mentioned immediately above. Also jot down the title of the article that precedes the one you read, as well as the title of the one that follows.

5. Write this up and please submit it to Blackboard – go to ‘Discussion Board' from the front page and look for the forum titled ‘Science Circa 1900.' Submit your write-up there; please don't email your assignment to me. Due Monday Oct. 8th at midnight.