Description
- Title: Mummy Science – Natural and Cultural Preserved Remains
- Air Date: May 7, 2015
- Series: Smithsonian Science How webcasts, which are designed to connect natural history science and research to upper-elementary and middle-school students.
This video features Dr. David Hunt, Physical and Forensic Anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History. He is an expert on mummies and how they are made. Did you know that mummies are often made accidentally? Conditions such as extreme cold, dryness, or lack of oxygen may preserve humans or other animals for hundreds or thousands of years. Unwrap the secrets of mummies using non-invasive modern techniques such as X-ray and CT scanning. We will compare human-made mummies to naturally-made mummies as we take a journey into research on people of the past.
NOTE: This program includes examples of human remains and may not be suitable for some viewers.
Teaching Resources
Mummies and Mummification
National Middle School Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Life Science
MS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- MS-LS1-1: Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
- MS-LS1-5: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
Physical Science
MS-PS1 Matter and Its Interactions
- MS-PS1-2: Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS)
Time, Continuity, and Change
- Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time.
- Knowledge and understanding of the past enable us to analyze the causes and consequences of events and developments, and to place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the periods in which they took place.
- Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn about the past? How can we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of different historical sources?
People, Places, and Environments
- The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
- During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments.
