Source: Secrets of the Dead
Explore evidence that points to a drought during the winter of 1609-1610 as a reason for the death of the colony at Jamestown. Learn how archaeologists use both colonists' journals and data from cypress trees to support a starvation theory.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Botany. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Consider polluted waters as another possible reason for the demise of the Colony. Learn how archaeologists use both colonists' journals and environmental science to support the theory that disease kept them from traveling to find food.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Health & Fitness, Social Studies
Topics: Disease. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Explore evidence that points to civil unrest and leadership problems within the fort as a reason for the deaths at Jamestown. Learn how archaeologists use ballistics to examine a musketball embedded in a skeleton to support a homicide theory.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Motion & Forces. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Learn how forensic scientists use clues from a skeleton found in the fort as well as other physical and chemical evidence to make conclusions about the individual's life and death. Discover what can be learned from tooth enamel.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Human Biology. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Consider one pathologist's theory that the deaths at Jamestown can be attributed to poisoning, and learn what tests he used to support his theory. Discover why the colonists might have had arsenic available to them.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Chemistry. Human Biology. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Learn why it's impossible to know for sure whether the settlers in the colony died from arsenic poisoning. Consider why a pathologist believes external evidence gathered from primary sources supports his theory.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Human Biology. Scientific Inquiry. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Discover how a lack of knowledge about science and a deep religious belief in both God and Satan may have been responsible for labelling an illness as witchcraft in 1692. See how hysteria spread and how the accused had a terrible choice.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Social Studies
Topics: Sociology. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Consider the theories of a behavior psychologist who believes the behaviors demonstrated by both the young girls and the public at-large in Salem resemble those caused by a drug created from a fungus. Learn about the origin and effects of LSD.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Science & Tech, Social Studies
Topics: Chemistry. Microbiology. United States History: 1585-1763.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Secrets of the Dead
Compare the behaviors of the people of Salem with those of a small village in France in 1951 after a local baker unknowingly used contaminated flour to make bread. Discover how the symptoms shown by the sick in Salem resemble ergot poisoning.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Health & Fitness, Social Studies
Topics: Disease. United States History: 1585-1763. World History: 1945-1990.
Resource Type: Video