Select one of the following scientists, or if you prefer, pick one that is not on the list. Try to choose one you do not know that much about, or might not have even heard of before.
Albert Einstein: wrote the Theory of Relativity and E = mc2
Aristotle: contributed to the idea of the scientific method; philosopher
Benjamin Banneker: African-American clockmaker, inventor, astronomer, and surveyor who wrote one of the first almanacs and helped lay out the plan for Washington D.C.
Alexander Graham Bell: one of the first inventors of the telephone
Niels Bohr: first to describe the orbital path of electrons around the atom
Nicholas Copernicus: first to publish theory that Earth was not the center of the universe
Marie Curie: discovered radioactivity; first woman to win Nobel Prize
Charles Darwin–first to publish the theory of evolution and natural selection
Leonardo da Vinci: “universal genius”–painter, sculptor, engineer, inventor
Thomas Edison: prolific inventor; phonograph and light bulb were two
Ben Franklin: conducted experiments on electricity and was a prolific inventor
Galileo Galilei: described the motion of the planets, developed the telescope
Jane Goodall: anthropologist who lived with chimpanzees to study their behavior
Louis Pasteur: developed some of the first vaccines
Carl Sagan: recent writer of many popular science books; promoted the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
E.O. Wilson: developed the concept of “biodiversity” and the importance of maintaining the Earth’s living species
Write a paper that is 1 to 2 pages long (12 point font, Times New Roman, 1.5 spaced) that addresses the following questions about your chosen scientist. Do not copy and paste from Internet sites; all writing should be in your own words. Any plagiarized work will result in zero points for this assignment.
1. Describe your scientist’s early life, and how they became interested in their field.
2. Describe several contributions your scientist has made to the scientific community and the world.
3. Think about the age your scientist lived in. If it was long ago, what might he/she be working on today? If your scientist lived/lives in modern times, what could you imagine him/her working on in the future?
