Creating Chicago History

LGBT individuals and families are increasingly visible in popular culture and local communities; their struggles for equality appear regularly in news media. If history museums and historic sites are to be inclusive and relevant, they must begin incorporating this community into their interpretation. Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites is straightforward, accessible guidebook for museum and history professionals as they embark on such worthy efforts. This book features: An examination of queer history in the United States. The rapid rate at which queer topics have entered the mainstream could conceivably give the impression that LGBT people have only quite recently begun to contribute to United States culture and this misconception ignores a rich history. A brief overview of significant events in LGBT history highlights variant sexuality and gender in U.S. history, from colonization to the first decades of the twenty-first century. Case studies on the inclusion and telling of LGBT history. These chapters detail how major institutions, such as the Chicago History Museum, have brought this topic to light in their interpretation. An extensive bibliography and reading list. LGBT history is a fascinating story, and the limited space in this volume can hardly do it justice. These features are provided to guide readers to more detailed information about the contributions of LGBT people to U.S. history and culture. This guide complements efforts to make museums and historic sites more inclusive, so they may tell a richer story for all people.

Chemistry outreach, a type of informal science education commonly practiced by college students, has primarily been studied by looking at individuals' approaches and perspectives. However, it is much more common for college students to plan and conduct chemistry outreach events as part of a group/club/chapter, not independently. In this case study, we looked at the planning and evaluation processes for a single student group conducting a chemistry outreach event. Using pre- and post-outreach event focus groups, we sought to understand how the group was structured and how they collectively planned and implemented their outreach event. Using the Framework for Effective Chemistry Communication and Communities of Practice, we identified the steps the group took to plan, implement, and evaluate their event, as well as the group's structure and member dynamics. Findings showed a misalignment between goals used to plan the outreach event, and those evaluated when reflecting on the event's success. Additionally, the Communities of Practice framework was able to highlight the membership structure underlying the group's planning process, as well as areas for growth and improvement. Overall, findings provide further support that collegiate chemistry organizations/student groups need more resources and training to successfully conduct chemistry outreach.

Collaborative processes by nature are not neat and tidy; and if mismanaged, they can lead to chaos rather than creative productivity. However, when a museum and a group of teachers establish a respectful peer community that maximizes all the members talents, truly impactful teaching and learning result. This article analyzes the Great Chicago Stories project, a partnership among the Chicago History Museum, sixteen teachers, and other stakeholders, as a model to examine the challenges and rewards in developing, implementing, and evaluating shared projects.

The film Eight Men Out begins with several gamblers watching Chicago White Sox clinching 1919 American League pennant, talking about which players might be open to offers of bribes to throw coming World Series. The perception that naive, simple ballplayers had fallen victim to evil fixers-resulting in event that went down in history as Black Sox scandal-was widespread when scandal broke. That event happened on September 28, 1920, when ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte testified to Cook County grand jury and admitted that fix was indeed in, and that he had accepted a $10,000 bribe before 1919 Series. (There is no sense in cinematic version of Eliot Asinof 's 1963 book Eight Men Out that nearly another whole season was played after tainted Series, with result that film in fact covers up coverup.)Even when it became clear during course of Black Sox in summer of 1921, from testimony of both ballplayers and gamblers, that fix originated with former, and not with underworld figures preying on innocents, most people chose to believe otherwise. Thanks to both 1963 book and 1988 film, that belief has become fairly cemented into public consciousness.There was no real investigation into exactly what happened in October 1919, or in months following. After scandal broke, baseball would rush to support what historian David Voigt called the of baseball's single sin-that is, idea that bribery in 1919 Series was first and last time that otherwise clean sport was ever sullied. Many baseball reporters knew better, but most went along with damage control. A few, like Hugh Fullerton, would speculate that 1919 Series was probably not first to be tainted, and eventually evidence of previous tampering-starting with very first modern Series game in 1903-emerged. But myth persisted, so that even today suggestion that other World Series may have been crooked is shocking and incredible.However, documents in collection purchased in 2007 by Chicago History Museum (CHM), made available in May 2009, contain new information about origin of 1919 Series fix. These documents raise questions about 1918 Series, as well.What Did Eddie Say?In 1920, media was newspapers, and what they reported often went down as history. After Eddie Cicotte left Cook County grand jury, it was widely reported that he had testified in exchange for immunity from prosecution. That was not case, however; he had signed a waiver of immunity in grand jury room. It was also reported that he had confessed to taking bribe money (which was true) and that he had intentionally thrown two games to opposing team in 1919 Series. Many papers promptly looked up play-by-play accounts from previous October and noted that Cicotte, 29-7 with a 1.82 ERA during 1919 season, was knocked out early in a 9-1 win by Cincinnati in Game 1. He also appeared to have lost Game 4 single-handedly, having made errors accounting for both runs in Cincinnati's 2-0 win. In days that followed, Cicotte was said to have told grand jury in detail how he had earned $10,000 that he found under his pillow before Game 1, and there were accounts of how he had fed Cincinnati fat pitches and made those Game 4 errors intentionally.But that was not, in fact, what Eddie had said to grand jury.It was not until 1921 trial that his testimony became public. It was read into record (after a dispute about its admissibility): Cicotte and two other players who spoke to grand jury, Shoeless Joe Jackson (on same day as Cicotte), and Claude Lefty Williams (the morning after), all repudiated their 1920 statements. Advised by their own lawyers-whereas they had not been year before-the trio said that they had been promised that they would not be prosecuted, fined, or jailed if they cooperated and told what they knew. …

By 1909, the year this photo was taken, Chicago had grown into a major U.S. city, second only to New York City. The growth had been rapid, and in the eyes of many Chicagoans and the city’s planners, the growth had gotten out of control, leading to congestion and overcrowding. This widely reproduced photograph from the Chicago History Museum has become emblematic of the city’s chaos and congestion at the time. It was taken in conjunction with the 1909 publication of The Plan of Chicago, popularly called the Burnham Plan after one of its authors, Daniel H. Burnham.

Studs Terkel Radio Archive. Produced by WFMT Radio Network, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois. Online at: https://studsterkel.wfmt.com.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum aims to provide students with problem‐solving skills and knowledge to promote interest in STEM careers. Yet, study of the scientific method, the basis for research and many other STEM careers, is often overlooked. The current high demands for an increased STEM workforce, highlight the importance in developing students’ interest and skills that would encourage career pursuit. The objective of this study was to evaluate and develop seventh grade students’ understanding of the scientific method. We hypothesized that improving students’ understanding of the scientific method would increase interest in pursuing a STEM career. We evaluated this hypothesis by using a physiology‐based outreach activity focused on hands‐on learning and collecting survey data post event. The event was performed at a middle school located in the metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska. One‐hundred and four students participated in one hour of physiology‐based activities led by volunteer faculty, postdoctoral research associates, graduate students, and medical students. Sessions commenced with the volunteers introducing themselves, their career level, and research focus. Volunteers then gave a brief explanation of how science affects everything in the world followed by an introduction to the physiological systems: the eye, or the heart and lungs. Students were lead through a set of activities designed to explain the scientific method scientific method by conducting experiments at two stations centered on the eye or the heart and lungs for 20–25 minutes. The session concluded with 15 minutes of question and answer to allow students to confer with the volunteers about what they just learned, science as a career, and what a scientist’s typical day resembles. A post‐survey was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of the day of activities. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data and factor analysis was conducted to create a “Science Interest” scale. Overall, this project received positive feedback from the students related to learning and understanding science. Sixty‐five percent of students reported that the event increased their appreciation of science. Seventy‐one percent of students reported that the outreach event helped them understand what a career in science is like. Twenty‐one percent of students reported the event increased their interest in science, 68% reported this event didn’t change their interest, and 11% reported that this event decreased their interest in science. Using the “Science Interest” scale (Alpha = .773), 54 (58%) students fit into the “high” science interest category and 39 (42%) fit into the “low” interest category. Students who scored high in science interest were significantly (p< 0.01) more likely to answer “agree” or “strongly agree” on the questions, “This event increased my appreciation of science” and “This outreach event helped me to understand what a career in science is like.” Relatedly, students who scored low on the science interest scale were significantly more likely to respond that the event made them less interested in a science career. Our data suggest that a physiology‐based educational outreach event is effective in enhancing understanding of the scientific method and generation of interest to pursue a STEM career.

An activity for a National Chemistry Week outreach event has been designed in which children construct a periodic table out of LEGO building bricks. During the activity, children followed simple instructions to build the symbol of a particular element onto a 5.25 in. × 5.25 in. LEGO base plate. Squares for all elements were constructed in this manner, resulting in a periodic table composed of over 6000 LEGO pieces. The finished product has been hung on a wall in the science center at Spring Arbor University. The table has unexpectedly become a unique conversation piece that allows for informal chemical education. In addition, high school students and others have added to the charm of the table by designing LEGO creations to place on the squares of certain elements. These LEGO creations are built so as to represent the element on the square on which it is placed. How the table was built, how the construction of the table was used as a hands-on activity at an outreach event, and how people were invited to build LEGO creations to donate to the table are described.

The development and implementation of a scientific outreach activity comes with a number of challenges. A successful outreach event must match the sophistication of content to the audience, be engaging, expand the knowledge base for participants, and be inclusive for a diverse audience. Ideally, a successful event will also convey the importance of scientific outreach for future scientists and citizens. In this paper, we present a simple, hands-on guide to a scientific outreach event targeted to kindergarten learners. This activity also pursued a second goal: the inclusion of undergraduate students in the development and delivery of the event. We provided a detailed set of four activities, focusing on the blind Mexican cavefish, which were enthusiastically received by kindergarten audiences. The engagement of undergraduate students in the development of this activity encouraged public outreach involvement and fostered new scientific and communication skills. The format of the outreach event we describe is flexible. We provide a set of guidelines and suggestions for adapting this approach to other biological topics. The activity and approach we describe enables the implementation of effective scientific outreach, using active learning approaches, which benefits both elementary school learners and undergraduate students.

This paper examines the role of inclusive entrepreneurship and innovative business models in addressing urban inequality, a critical global challenge that has intensified in recent decades. Through an analysis of social entrepreneurship, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), Triple Bottom Line (TBL) frameworks, and community co-ownership structures, the study explores how these approaches can catalyze solutions to urban disparities. Drawing on case studies, it demonstrates the potential of these interventions under the right conditions. In Thailand, the Bang Mot Canal project illustrates how local SMEs can revitalize communities while addressing infrastructural and environmental challenges. Indonesia's growing social enterprise sector showcases the scale of impact, while India’s Lijjat underscores the necessity of co-ownership structures. The study concludes that while inclusive entrepreneurship is not a perfect solution, it represents a vital tool for addressing urban inequality when properly supported by infrastructure, policies, values, and monitoring frameworks. Success requires careful consideration of local contexts, strong institutional frameworks, and sustained commitment from multiple stakeholders to ensure these initiatives contribute meaningfully to addressing urban inequalities.

Educational efforts related to viral hepatitis have the potential to increase awareness and identify chronically infected individuals and can lead to successful vaccination strategies. However, in underserved semirural communities, such as the Korean American community in Killeen, Texas, these outreach activities are lacking. The GanYum (“hepatitis” in Korean) Prevention Project aimed to evaluate thoughts/behaviors, assess vulnerability, and educate Korean Americans on hepatitis B and C. Two outreach events were held at a Korean church and a Korean market (O'Mart) to provide education, screening, and outreach about viral hepatitis. Ninety-six patients were screened at two events. Five patients were found to be positive for hepatitis B surface antigen and were referred to their primary care physicians and the liver clinic at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, Texas. Fifty-one patients (53%) were found to be immune to hepatitis B, and 40 patients (42%) were hepatitis B vulnerable. We demonstrated that the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B in Koreans in our study is similar to the previously documented prevalence (5%). Our educational efforts were successful in changing perceptions regarding the modes of transmission and exacerbating factors of chronic viral hepatitis and encouraged participants to seek care for their liver diseases, if needed. We found that both venues (the church and Korean market) were appropriate to screen and educate participants; churches seemed to have a more engaged audience.

Paleomagnetism is a relatively unknown part of Earth sciences that is not well integrated into the school curriculum in the United Kingdom. Throughout recent years, there has been a decline in the number of Earth science students in the UK. In 2018 and 2019, we developed outreach activities and resources to introduce the scientifically-engaged general public to paleomagnetism and raise awareness of how geomagnetism affects society today, thus putting paleomagnetism, and Earth sciences, in the spotlight. We tested our ideas at local events that were visited mostly by families with small children, with tens to hundreds of participants. Our project culminated in the ‘Magnetic to the Core’ stand at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in 2019, which is visited by members of the general public as well as students and teachers, scientists, policymakers and the media. At this event, we communicated the fundamentals of paleomagnetism through hands-on experiments and presented our recent research advances in a fun and family friendly way. To test the impact of our exhibit on knowledge of paleomagnetism and Earth’s magnetic field on visitors, we designed an interactive quiz and collected results from 382 participants over 8 days. The results show an increase in score of 19.1 % between those who had not yet visited the stand to those who had visited for more than 10 minutes. The results from school-age respondents alone show a larger increase in score of 28.1 % between those who had not yet visited and those who had spent more than 10 minutes at the stand. These findings demonstrate that this outreach event was successful in impacting visitors’ learning. We hope our Magnetic to the Core project can serve as an inspiration for other Earth science laboratories looking to engage a wide audience and measure the success and impact of their outreach activities.

Pop culture has great potential as a tool for communicating science to the public. The Sternberg Museum of Natural History (FHSM) hosted a public, all-ages outreach event utilizing Pokémon to illustrate common principles of evolution and highlighting the confluence of pop-culture and science. Pokémon is a multi-billion dollar multimedia franchise centered on the training and combat of small monsters, called Pokémon, which grow stronger and ‘evolve’ over time as they bond with their trainer. While ‘evolution’ in the Pokémon franchise is more akin to the process of metamorphosis in the real world, with weaker forms transitioning into stronger ones, principles of mutation, adaptation, and descent with modification are regularly evoked within the series. This close association between Pokémon ‘evolution’ and Darwinian evolution provides an invaluable opportunity to use a popular franchise to explain evolutionary principles through basic comparison, as well as clarifying public misperceptions of evolution by drawing attention to inaccuracies portrayed in the franchise. Tables were placed around the Museum where fossils and illustrated graphics highlighted similarities between Pokémon designs and their extinct counterparts, while teaching the principles of adaptation, descent with modification, and island biogeography. Guests were encouraged to use self-directed learning to interact with Museum staff who explained the evolutionary principles outlined at that table and the inferences that can be made regarding the biology and ecology of the organisms the Pokémon represent. A scavenger hunt was also implemented to encourage exploration of the museum; younger guests were tasked with seeking additional Pokémon hidden throughout the museum. This interactive activity rewarded exploration of both event-specific displays and traditional exhibits with a small bag of candy upon completion. Arts-and-crafts related to Pokémon and evolution were available for very young guests. The event took place over five hours on a Saturday; normal admission fees were required. Principles learned from this Pokémon Day event can be used by the FHSM and other institutions to further refine engaging and informative public outreach events in the future, utilizing different pop-culture franchises to teach scientific principles to the public.

Rethinking the Ph.D. dissertation in botany: Widening the circle.

For the second consecutive year, the University of Padua hosted a scientific communication initiative known as Science4All, which aims to convey scientific concepts in an engaging and accessible manner.Science4All comprises two primary outreach events. The first occurs at the end of September, featuring a full-day program where young researchers and university staff organize workshops, scientific cafés, games, quizzes, and shows accessible to the public. Various stands are situated across Padua's historic center, arranged along thematic paths, while museums and university departments also offer guided tours. The second outreach event targets school groups and this year took place during the last two weeks of November. Depending on the chosen activity, students either visit university facilities or participate in dedicated workshops or seminars led by university staff at their own schools.The Center of Studies and Activities for Space (CISAS) "Giuseppe Colombo," as an interdisciplinary center operating across multiple departments, has committed to contributing to this initiative by offering various activities. Among these, CISAS supported the organization of workshops focused on planetary geology. Given the resurgence of interest in lunar exploration and colonization, coupled with the achievements of past (e.g., Rosetta) and ongoing (e.g., Perseverance) space missions, the field of planetary geology captivates audiences with its discoveries and practical applications.In this context, we provide an overview of the activities dedicated to the promotion of planetary geology.An all-day long workshop dedicated to all citizens needs to find a simple, funny and speedy way to release its take-home messages. At the same time, the workshop activities need to be accessible and engaging for all ages and, why not, also captivating. Keeping this in mind, we organized a game session of Planetary Bingo. During the game, each participant was provided with a bingo card and, in order to place a marker, had to answer a series of questions on small curiosities about the geology of planetary bodies in our Solar System and beyond (e.g. Mars, Earth, Jupiter, comets). The explanation of each answer was assisted by the presentation of an explanatory image displayed on a large screen. Participants were granted the possibility to join the game anytime so that everyone could win and be rewarded with a “planetary” prize.For the educational activity for schools, instead, we organized a full-on immersion in planetary geology dedicated to students from 5th-grade elementary school to 3rd-grade middle school. The activity was structured with an introductory part in the form of a seminar followed by a workshop in which the students had the possibility to walk on Mars and the Moon in a virtual reality (VR) environment. More in detail, during our geo-planetary seminars we held an introduction showcasing the most interesting and fascinating facts in terms of geology and exploration for the Moon, Mars and Mercury. We focused also on the training undertaken by astronauts to be able to analyze, sample and report on a planetary surface, as an expert geologist would do, through the study of terrestrial analogs. Just like the astronauts, the students were then able to touch and try to recognize which (analog) rocks might be found on Mars, Mercury or the Moon. To conclude our activity, we accompanied the students on a virtual walk on the river delta deposits within the Jezero crater (Mars), the lacustrine deposits within the Crommelin crater (Mars), the central peak of the Copernicus crater, and the site of the Extravehicular Activity 3 held during the Apollo 17 mission. Simultaneously to the VR experience, we organized a parallel session of planetary mapping dedicated, in case of necessity, to students with cognitive or learning disorders, or unable to use the VR.Overall, the planetary geology activities offered during Science4All proved to be highly effective in engaging participants in scientific exploration. The activities were well-suited to the audience's age and level of knowledge, ensuring that even fundamental concepts in astronomy and geology were effectively communicated and the use of various didactic tools (e.g., images, presentations, rocks, virtual environments) received positive feedback for their intuitive nature and comprehensive coverage of the subject matter.Acknowledgements: We acknowledge funding and support from the Società Italiana Scienze Planetarie – Angioletta Coradini (SISP-AC) and from the Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività per lo Spazio «Giuseppe Colombo» (CISAS) of the University of Padua.