Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament in 1885, establishing the Nobel Prize.

...The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses...

-excerpt from the last will and testament of Alfred Nobel

The son of an engineer and inventor, Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden in 1833. Early on, Nobel was a lover of poetry and literature, but at the wish of his father he was also trained as a chemist. He spent years experimenting with the explosive properties of nitroglycerine, which he ultimately produced and sold as dynamite. He eventually held 355 patents. Nobel's combination of business acumen and chemistry knowledge helped to make him a wealthy man. He never lost his early love of poetry and literature and over his life, he developed a strong interest in social issues. These factors influenced him in establishing prizes in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace.

When Nobel signed his will on this day in 1885, he outlined a plan for creating the Nobel Foundation and establishing the annual prizes that bear his name. He named two young engineers as his executors and specified several organizations to select the prize-winners. Nobel kept the contents of his will secret, and they came as a surprise when the will was read after his death on December 10, 1896. The will was contested by family members and several governments, but the foundation Nobel envisioned eventually became a reality and still funds the annual prizes he created.

ReadWriteThink
In Style: Translating Stylistic Choices from Hawthorne to Hemingway and Back Again (9-12), students read the work of Nobel Prize-winner Ernest Hemingway as they translate passages that demonstrate specific stylistic devices, then translate fables into the style of one of the authors they have been reading.

Students explore the characteristics of minimalist fiction and the work of contemporary minimalist writers by reading Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" and Raymond Carver's "Little Things" in When Less IS More—Understanding Minimalist Fiction (9-12).

In Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project (9-12), students read Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and explore issues from the Depression era. Students then focus on one issue as it applies to Steinbeck's novel and create artifacts for a museum exhibit.

In Using Student-Centered Comprehension Strategies with Elie Wiesel’s Night (9-12), students use reciprocal teaching strategies as they read and discuss Holocaust survivor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel's memoir Night.

EDSITEment
Students examine literary modernism in the unit Introduction to Modernist Poetry (9-12). Specifically, students read and analyze modernist poetry, including Nobel Prize-winner T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

Students identify key events in Nobel Prize-winner Rudyard Kipling's life and describe their effect on his story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (part of The Jungle Book) in the lesson Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”: Mixing Fact and Fiction (3-5).

In the related lesson Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”: Mixing Words and Pictures (3-5), students read an illustrated version of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and examine how Kipling and visual artists mix observation with imagination to create remarkable works.

The curriculum unit Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: Form of a Funeral (9-12), features lessons exploring the narrative voices and social concerns in Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying.

In the curriculum unit William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Narrating the Compson Family Decline and the Changing South (9-12), students examine narrative structure and time, narrative voice/point of view and symbolism throughout William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury.

Science NetLinks
In the Science Update Higgs Field (6-12), Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman predicts the next revolutionary discovery in physics: the Higgs Particle.

The 2006 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to John C. Mather and George F. Smoot for their work on the Big Bang theory. Learn more about the theory in the Science Update interview with another Nobel-winner, Leon Lederman: Before Big Bang (6-12).

The Science Update South Pole Scope (6-12) examines one way scientists try to measure remnants of light from the Big Bang.

Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello were awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work with RNA. The interactive tool Protein Synthesis: At the Ribosome (9-12) presents a brief animation that demonstrates the process by which messenger RNA (mRNA) is translated into protein.

Roger D. Kornberg was awarded the 2006 Nobel Price in Chemistry for his work with machinery for reading DNA. Extracting DNA (9-12) introduces students to DNA, genes, chromosomes and the chemicals that make up DNA.

Xpeditions
In DNA and Endangered Species (6-8), students learn some basics about DNA and genetics and then learn how DNA can be used to study and help endangered animals.

EconEdLink
Although Alfred Nobel did not establish the Nobel Prize in Economics in his original will, it was added to the list of prizes in 1968, when Sweden's central bank established this Prize in memory of Nobel. The 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Milton Friedman, was a proponent of school vouchers. The Controversial School Voucher Issue (9-12) examines this controversial issue, with particular attention to his arguments.