Click on the banner to go back to the home page

Science History: Joseph Henry

Prepared by Jack Urso, Technology Integrationist for the Virtual Learning Training Center.

Task: Review the information about a local inventor and answer the study questions.

Objective: Students will be able to explain how an individual’s scientific research impacted their community and the world.

Task 1: Look at this photo of a historical marker in downtown Albany, NY, in Academy Park, on Central Avenue and across the street from the State Capitol (click picture for larger image).

Could Albany really be the birthplace of modern electricity? Just who was this Joseph Henry guy anyway?

Read his biography (use the links to click through the first seven pages) and review the timeline of his life.

 

 

Joseph Henry’s influence as an inventor:

 

His role as an Educator:

 

Joseph Henry, First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution:

 

Joseph Henry

Task 2: Study Questions:

1) The marker claims Henry’s work led to the birth of “Modern Electricity,” do you agree? Explain why or why not.

2) What type of devices rely on the principle of electro-magnetism that Henry researched and developed? Did those devices have much of an impact on the world?

3) How were Henry’s experiments in electro-magnetism different from the work of others who preceded him?

4) As an educator, Henry believed that supporting “basic research” would benefit students in what way?”

5) For what reasons was Henry selected as the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution?

Task 3: BONUS ASSIGNMENT! Read about Michael Faraday beginning here (click through to the end) then answer the following questions. What European scientist’s work influenced both Henry and Faraday? What are the three influences that can lead two different people, a world apart, to come up with the same invention?