Historic Scientists Presentations

The first graded assignment I have my students complete is a Historic Scientist Presentation. This assignment helps to cover 3 main goals. It helps students see that science and society are interrelated, scientists overcome challenges to reach their conclusions, and it helps students practice presenting information in front of the class. To the right I have the poster I designed to model what I expected for my students. (Pasteur is one of my favorite scientists of all time and I am completely amazed by how much he changed the world in his lifetime)

The First Goal
The first goal of this assignment is for my students to see that society is greatly affected by science and that society plays a large part in scientific discoveries. Last week I mentioned that many sophomores come into class already having decided that they don't like science and that they will never use it. One way to help these sophomores care about the material we are covering is by helping them see how science has affected society. One of the standards here in Nebraska is to "Describe how society influences the work of scientists and how the science, technology, and current scientific discoveries influence and change society." This can all be summed up with this diagram.
One of the scientists they research is George Washington Carver. I ask my students "Why he was so obsessed with studying peanuts? What kind of person grows up wanting to be the peanut man?" The students giving the presentation will usually answer that the only reason he studied peanuts was because he wanted to help the poor, recently freed black farmers in the South. What a powerful example of society dictating what a scientist researches!

The Second Goal 

The second goal of this assignment is for students to understand the challenges scientists face overcoming commonly held beliefs. There are lots of ways students could reach the first goal, whether its talking about nuclear weapons, discussing how cell phones changed society, or learning why science is focused on curing cancer rather than HIV. However, this activity allows us to "kill 2 birds with one stone." and cover two standards with one activity. I think this can be particularly helpful for female students who are researching a female scientist. One of the scientists they study is Rachel Carson (crap...I shouldn't have mentioned killing birds earlier...) who was a whistle blower about the dangers of uncontrolled DDT use in the United States. When the students realize the things chemical companies said and did to discredit her and her work, it really opens their eyes to the challenges female scientists used to face and makes them realize how much more open society is now to females pursuing a career in science.

The Third Goal
The third goal is for students to practice and become more comfortable sharing information to their peers. Last year, I had students write a paper about the scientist but I found I spent most of my time trying to teach them how to write instead of seeing them learn about scientist. I went for the poster and in-class presentation approach to help them develop their public speaking skills which I think are absolutely vital. One concept that is very dear to me is the idea of scientific literacy, where students can do more than just memorize science stuff, but discuss and share it with others in a way their audience can understand. This also helps level the playing field for students who struggle in school because they are poor writers (although these students also generally lack confidence to share info in front of the class, I do my best to ease their discomfort.) One area that I try to focus on is presenting rather than reading. Some students get so concerned about making a mistake or forgetting to say something, they want to just read what they put on the poster. This is an area that I really try to help them improve because watching the back of someones head while they read something you can read on your own is super boring.

Here is the link of the rubric I used if anyone is interested in doing a project similar to this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/110425052/Scientist%20Writing%20Assignment%20rubric.docx

Does anyone do something like this? Any suggestions for improvements?