Try doing a text search for your program, or browse our programs using the calendar and program type filters.
Ages 6 to 11. Join the Science Guys of Baltimore on a journey to learn about the physical forces which govern our universe.
The 1950s in America is thought of as a pleasant and placid decade, an era of conformity and good cheer, Leave It to Beaver, men in gray flannel suits and women in the kitchen. But it was also the decade of Emmett Till, the Little Rock Nine, Little Richard, Joseph McCarthy, air-raid drills, and Rebel Without a Cause. Leonard Steinhorn, a professor at American University, examines the politics, music, media, popular culture, and race relations of a far more complex decade than memory might suggest.
In 1839, five young women in Boston formed a conversation society “to answer the great questions” of special importance to women: "What are we born to do? How shall we do it?" Scholar and author Randall Fuller examines how these women—all remarkable thinkers and artists who played pathbreaking but often-overlooked roles in the transcendentalist movement—helped form the foundations of American feminism.
Americans who worked on farms and in factories once had little choice but to work until death. As the nation prospered, a new idea was born: the right to a dignified and secure old age. The fight to deliver that right has been enormously successful, but it is still unfinished: Today, millions of older people lack the resources to live with dignity and security. Historian James Chappel explains how we got here and what the future might bring for an aging America.
Meet some of the unseen but essential professionals behind the exhibitions of art, artifacts, and specimens that fill the Smithsonian’s museums when you visit a place where even the most avid museum-goer never sets foot: the headquarters of Smithsonian Exhibits in Landover, Maryland. Staff members talk about their work and welcome you to areas devoted to 3D scanning and printing technologies; graphics; fabrication; and object storage. See projects in progress, including ones destined for upcoming exhibitions at Smithsonian museums.
Working amid the vibrant creativity of 15th-century Florence, the sculptor Donatello emerged as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the Renaissance. A true master of technique, he revolutionized sculpture by breaking new ground in both the methods he employed and the forms he developed. Art historian Elaine Ruffolo delves into the life and artistry of Donatello, who explored the human experience with a boldness and depth that still resonates, leaving behind a legacy of works that seem remarkably modern in their emotional complexity and technical execution. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
The icy continent of Antarctica has a fiery volcanic past—and some volcanoes there remain active. Volcanologist Samuel Mitchell highlights them and their effects. Go back in time with Mitchell to see how volcanic and magmatic activity shaped the continent and how tectonic plate movement doomed Antarctica to its frozen fate for millions of years.
