1. Getting Started

First Things First - Assignment Requirements

Before you begin work on any research project, examine the assignment closely for any requirements.

Q. How long is the presentation?

Your presentation should be a 5-7 minute oral presentation and a PowerPoint presentation with at least 4-6 slides. Confirm these requirements with your assignment sheet.

Q. How many sources?

How many total sources does your instructor ask for; are they all outside sources or does your textbook count as one of your sources? For this assignment, you will need at least two credible sources.

Q. What kind of sources?

Does your instructor specify certain types of sources? Are there other requirements such as how current/old the sources can be, or where the source should come from - the library, a database, a book/ebook, a peer-reviewed journals, etc.?

Q. How do you cite sources?

Cite your sources using MLA format for your citations. You may want to remind yourself what information you need to create the MLA Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Q. What is due?

What do you have to turn in? In addition to your presentation, you will also need to submit a 2 page (minimum) memo-style summary of the presentation. Are there other pieces like a rough draft, outline, summary, reading response, a tutorial, etc. Make note of all the parts of the assignment and create a checklist to make sure you don't leave anything out.

Q. When is it due?

How long do you have to work on this project? Is there one due date for everything or are there multiple due dates for different parts of the assignment? Plan out your time, so you don't get stuck doing all the work at the last minute. Plan extra time in case you have problems or get stuck.

Q. What other requirements should you make note of?

Are there requirements to include a certain number of quotes or paraphrases? Do you need to have a certain number of slides? Do you need visuals/images? current statistics? Make note of any other requirements on the assignment sheet, and ask your instructor for clarification on any parts you're not sure about.

Selecting a Topic

The first thing you need to do before you begin a research project is to select a topic that you're going to write about. Remember, your historical figure should be connected to your field of study or your intended career in some way. Here are possible historical figures to consider:

Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies

Samuel Slater (factories)
Frances Cabot Lowell (first textile mill)
Lewis Hine (social reform)
Ella May Wiggins (social reform)
Henry Ford (founder of Ford)
Lewis Latimer (inventor of improvements to light blub)

Automotive

Ferdinand Porsche Sr. (inventor of hybrid car)
Henry Ford (founder of Ford)
Nils Bohlin (inventor of 3-point seat belt)
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (inventor of cars)
Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (inventor of Diesel engine)
Nicolas Hayek (inventor of smart cars)
Alexander Winton (inventor of semi-trucks)
Frederick McKinley Jones (inventor of refrigerated truck)
Lee Iacocca (CEO of Ford)
Miller Reese Hutchison (inventor of car horn)

Mechatronics

Martin Cooper (inventor of smartphones)
Nicolas Hayek (inventor of smart cars)
Sergei Korolev (inventor of satellites)
Chuck Hull (inventor of 3D printing)
Claude Shannon (inventor of wearable devices)

Welding

Vanuccio Biringuccio (pioneer in field of metallurgy)
Humphry Davy (inventor of arc welding)
Alexander Holley (engineer, founder of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME))
Julio Gonzalez (metal sculpturer)
Elihu Thomson (Inventor of the resistance method of electric welding)
David Roland Smith (metal sculpturer)
Leonardo da Vinci (metal sculpturer)

HVAC

Willis Carrier (inventor of AC)
David Nelson Crosthwait, Jr.(Held over 30 patents)
Alice H. Parker (inventor of gas furnace)
William Rankine (founder of thermodynamics)
Frederick McKinley Jones (inventor of refrigerated truck)
Lewis Latimer (inventor of improvements to light blub)
Henry Worthington (engineer, inventor of steam pump, founder of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME))
Alexander Twining (inventor of ice maker)
Jacob Perkins (inventor of free circulation of water in boilers; vapor compression cycle for refrigeration)

Business

Andrew Carnegie
Steve Jobs
Madame CJ Walker
Oprah Winfrey
Mary Kay Ash
Sheryl Sandberg
Thomas Edison
Bill Gates
Walt Disney
Raymond A. Croc
Roger Miliken
Charles M. Schwab
Charles R. Schwab

Computer and Engineering Technologies

Alan Turing
Charles Babbage
Ada Lovelace John
John van Neumann
Dr. Frank S. Greene, Jr.
Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider
Hedy Lamarr
Mary W. Jackson

Culinary Arts

Julia Child
Thomas Downing
James Hemmings
Antonin Carême
Auguste Escoffier
Dorothy Cann Hamilton
Hiroaki Aoki ("Rocky")
Abby Fisher
James Beard
Emeril Lagasse
Edna Lewis
Wolfgang Puck
Jamie Oliver
Larry and Jereline Bethune

Education

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Socrates
Nannie Helen Burroughs
Dr. Edward Bouchet
John Amos Comenius
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thomas Gallaudet
Horace Mann
John Dewey
Margaret Bancroft
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune
Jane Addams
Maria Montessori
Paulo Freire
Anne Sullivan

Health Sciences

Mary Eliza Mahoney ((first female African American professionally trained nurse in US)
Florence Nightingale (nursing)
Elizabeth Blackwell (first female physician in US/UK)
Rebecca Lee Crumpler (first African American female physician in US)
Margaret Sanger (nursing, birth control pioneer)
Mary Jane Seacole (nursing)
Karl Landsteiner (discovered blood groups)
Clara Barton (founded the Red Cross)
Sir William Osler (clinical laboratory pioneer)
Lillian Wald (nurse and social worker)
Susan La Flesche Picoette (first Native American to earn a medical degree)
Florence Sabin (medical & laboratory science pioneer)
Louis Pasteur (germ theory)
Edward Jenner (vaccines)
Joseph Lister (antiseptic surgery)
William Osler (specialty residencies)
Richard M. Lawler (successful organ transplantation)
Forrest M. Bird (ventilator)
Francis Crick (molecular biology)
Edward H. Angle (founded first school of orthodontics)

Sonography

Ian Donald
Tom Brown
Paul Langevin
Karl Dussik
Nicolas Rognin
Philip Green

Horticulture

Gertrude Jekyll
Laura McLaren, Lady Aberconwy
Vita Sackwille West
Lancelot Brown
Frederick Law Olmsted
Liberty Hyde Bailey

Q. Are there sources?

Before you totally commit to a topic, you'll want to make sure that there are enough outside sources on the topic for your assignment. Not every topic is going to have information written about it. Newer topics or topics that aren't as well known may be harder to find sources for. Do some searching in the library's databases to make sure there are sources, and Ask-A-Librarian to double-check if you're not sure there are enough sources for a topic you're really interested in.