African American Scientists

Overview

Black scientists have played a vital role in the history of our country. However, little is known about many of them. This project is designed to give us more information about the contributions of these men and women. In order to research this topic, students will use the Internet as one of their sources.

Concepts

• The Internet is a valuable resource to use in research.
• African Americans made many contributions to the various scientific fields.
• We all benefit from these contributions.

Indicators

• Find and retrieve information about an African American scientist from the Internet.
• Use word processing to prepare a written report.
• Use of various media to present project to class.

Precomputer

• Discuss ways of accessing biographical information over the Internet.
• Discuss plagiarism and how to properly cite an Internet reference.
• Prior to going on the Internet, give students a list of sites, such as Yahoo, where information can be found.
• Discuss ways in which project can be presented.
  (Attachment)
  On the computer
  
• If you have only one computer on the Internet, one group may use that resource while others use books from a cart supplied by the library. The computer then is rotated among the various groups until each group has been able to use it. If there are several computers on the net, more groups can use them at the same time and save some class time. Some of the students can access the net from home as well. Students can print out information from the net and take notes as they would from a book or periodical.
  

Postcomputer

• Students will turn in their written report.
• Students will present in class their visual report, which could be a poster, skit, song, poem, etc.

Related resources

• Set of reference books on a library cart
• ClarisWorks
• Scientists file