Women of Science Internet Activity
Learn about a few extraordinary women who have contributed to our body of scientific knowledge.
What kinds of contributions can women make in science?

Directions: Click on the links to go to a web site that has information about the woman mentioned.
If a link is broken, use your online research skills to develop an answer.

1. How did Rosalind Franklin contribute to the discovery of DNA's structure?

2. Name the field of science Ruth Patrick founded.

How would she gauge water quality?

What is the Patrick Principle?

3. Annette Frances Braun collected Microlepidoptera for decades. What is a common name for Microlepidoptera?

Why would a scientist collect species they are studying?

How does this impact the species?

4. Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton founded a society that helped her efforts to preserve ...

Name the society she founded.

5. Biologist, Rachel Carson, wrote an important book that warned of environmental pollution. Name the book.

Use your online research skills to learn:

What was the chemical identified in Carson's book?

How was it causing damage?

Chapter One of the her book is powerful because...

Offline: Does your school's library have the book?

6. How did Marie Curie impact science?

7. Stephanie Kwolek discovered what substance?

How is this substance important?

She said, "You have to be inquisitive about things. You have to have an open mind."

8. In 1849, Elizabeth Blackell was the first woman to graduate from a U.S. medical school.
Examine this chart about women and men graduating from medical school.
Which medical school graduation rate is greater for your state: men or women?

Should the government seek to change these numbers? Why?

9. She discovered a celestial body. She asked her students, "Did you learn that from a book or did you observe it yourself?"
Name her.

When did she make the discovery?

What did she discover?

10. Naomi Halas is a pioneering nanotechnologist. Consider her research.
Why should we all be cheering her on?

11. Jill Tarter co-founded SETI. Her quest is ...

12. Bonnie Bassler discovered something very important about bacteria. What did she discover?

How could her discovery change medicine?

13. Dr. S. Josephine Baker's contributions to medicine have impacted your life. How?

14. Describe the role Katherine Johnson played in space exploration.

15. Mary Anning can claim several firsts in what field of science?

Her first discovery was at age 12. She found the first Ichthyosaurus.

Research Challenge: Use your favorite search engine to find the answers.

* Name 3 women who are Nobel Prize Laureates.

Select one. Write a brief biography about her.

“As crude a weapon as the cave man's club,
the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life.” Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Extras:

4000 Years of Women in Science | A Woman got it done! famous women activity

Women Leaders in the World Activity | What is the nature of public service? Wangari Maathai

American Athenas, Founding Mothers and Daughters of Liberty

Internet Hunts / Computers / Nature / Civics & History / Bluebirds Project / Plants and People / Puzzles and Projects / Pennsylvania Projects / Home

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2004 Cynthia J. O'Hora Educators may print a hunt for use in a classroom setting. utd 2/2025

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

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