The General Education Pilot Project for Spring 1998 comprised four different areas of research. Seventeen History majors investigated four mysteries and controversies under the direction of Profs. David Rachels (English), Rose Mary Sheldon (History), Karl Sienerth (Chemistry), and Gordon Williams (Mathematics): the Mystery of Dinosaur DNA; the Mystery of the Pyramids; the Kennedy Assassination; and the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Each of the four issues had a strong interdisciplinary component. The question of dinosaur DNA fingerprinting and cloning focused primarily on chemistry, but students also read Jurassic Park in conjunction with their experiments. The mystery of the construction of the pyramids blended history, mathematics, and chemistry (see the link "Were the Pyramids Made of Concrete?" below). The Kennedy assassination controversy involved history and the mathematics of trajectories. And the Shakespeare Authorship Question involved literature, history, and the mathematics of cyphers.
One of the products of the students' research is a series of short essays presented here as The Shakespeare Mystery Website.
You can use the links below to investigate any one of these mysteries further.
Mystery Project Links:
The
Shakespeare Authorship Question
Shakespeare and the Globe: Then and Now--Biographies
A website provided by Encyclopedia Britannica full of useful information and links, including this survey of the authorship controversy.
The Shakespeare Authorship Page
"Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare."
A site produced by PBS's Frontline with links to material dedicated to the proposition that Edward deVere, the Earl of Oxford, wrote Shakespeare.
A Very Brief History of the Shakespeare Authorship Controversy
Dedicated to the proposition that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare.
Shakespeare Authorship Information Centre
Dedicated to the proposition that Bacon wrote Shakespeare (and apparently Don Quixote).
Jurassic
Park: DNA Fingerprinting and Cloning
A general overview of the issue, with links to additional articles. It also has links to the BioEthics Forum, the "Cloning Ethics FAQ", and other sites of interest.
An electronic newsletter about genetics and public policy from the Shriver Center. Regular columns include: Science, Medicine, Ethics, Law, International Developments, a Student Corner, and a list of Resources.
CAB International Animal Cloning Website
Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB) International is an intergovernmental, non-profit organization whose "mission is to help improve human welfare worldwide through the dissemination, application and generation of scientific knowledge." This website includes 30 abstracts from the CAB ABSTRACTS database that cover some of the technical, ethical, and welfare aspects of animal cloning. One is an abstract of the original paper recording the birth of the lamb Dolly.
A Spark of Science, a Storm of Controversy
An article from PrincetonInfo.com about the cloning controversy.
The
Kennedy Assassination
National Archives John F. Kennedy Assassination Records
Official government documents relating to the assassination.
The Kennedy Assassination. November 22, 1963
An itinerary of Kennedy, Oswald and Johnson on November 22, along with links to material on assassination documents and theories. (The photograph of President and Mrs. Kennedy above is borrowed from this site.)
The
Pyramids
A general site on the pyramids, Sphinx, and other examples of ancient Egyptian architecture.
The WWW search engine "Argos: Limited Area Search of the Ancient and Medieval Internet" provides over 300 links to material on the pyramids, including "The Great Pyramid of Giza" and "The Construction of the Pyramids."
A website that grew out of the television special on the building of the Pyramids broadcast by PBS's science show NOVA. (The photograph above of the Great Pyramid of Khufu is by Aaron Strong and is borrowed from this site.)
Are the Pyramids Made of Concrete?
The most recent theory of pyramid construction. They might have been poured.
Click here to go to the General Education Pilot Program Home Page
Last modified May 25, 1999