Girls, Boys, Others, Friends, Countrymen, and Aliens: Greetings!
Never let it be said that Uncle Rick doesn't have anything on his web site for kids to do. Here is a project suitable for youngsters, and probably even oldsters, unless you actually know all the answers already. I tried to make something like this for a grade-school class, then discovered it was too weird and difficult. So maybe it will have to be for older kids who've grown a few brain cells, but haven't grown so many that they're in high school and know it all.
History is full of people! Many people are so famous that practically everyone has heard of them: Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Mozart are two examples. Can you think of other famous people that just about everyone knows? Do you know Mariah Carey? How about Jim Carrey?
How about Carry Nation? Maybe you've never heard of her! History is full of people who aren't quite as famous as Albert Einstein. But they still made important and interesting contributions. They might be in scientists, artists, writers, dancers, musicians, or politicians. Below is a long list with a lot of people you probably don't know. All of them are famous, and all of them did interesting things.
Here is your assignment: Use the Internet to find information on at least eight of the following people. You must choose at least four men and four women. Write a paragraph or two (half a page at most) about each of your chosen historical people. When finished, your report will be about 4 pages long, but not much more than that.
Hints: You should include important information on your people, such as their dates of birth and when they died. (Some of them may be still alive!) Include two other important dates in their lives and some biographical information. Tell where they lived, their important contributions to history, and two or three other interesting facts about them. Try to find a picture of each person you choose to write about. You can include the picture if you want.
Men Women Claude Monet Georgia O'Keefe Roy Chapman Andrews Clara Weick Muthuswamy Dikshitar Emmeline Pankhurst Meriwether Lewis Elizabeth Blackwell Pablo Picasso Harriet Tubman Nelson Mandela Indira Nehru Gandhi Ernest Shackleton Mary Leakey Johann Sebastian Bach Marie Antoinette Jean-Francois Champollion Bessie Colman Isaac Newton Coco Chanel Jawaharlal Nehru Whoopi Goldberg Mark Twain Maria Callas Theodore Geisel Louisa May Alcott Gene Kelly Jeanne d'Arc Thomas Paine Agatha Christie Carl Sagan Wilma Mankiller Kenneth Grahame Rukmini Devi Arundale Robert Moog Precious Ramotswe Edgar Rice Burroughs Eleanor Roosevelt Charles Foster Kane Sarojini Naidu George Harrison Mary Cassatt Rudolf Nureyev Nellie Bly Alexander McCall Smith Beatrice Potter Marc Chagall Sally K. Ride Richard Brautigan Mildred Cable Matsuo Basho Sojourner Truth Alfred Russel Wallace Imogen Cunningham William S. Gilbert Yoko Ono Mel Blanc Phoebe Apperson Hearst Miguel Covarrubias Anna Mary Robertson Moses Charlie Chaplin Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Sherlock Holmes Beatrice Wood Henry Louis Aaron Babe Didrickson Zaharias Andy Warhol Liliuokalani Arthur Sullivan Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin Paul McCartney Murasaki Shikibu George Gershwin Hildegard von Bingen Toyotomi Hideyoshi Fanny Bullock Workman George Donner Dian Fossey Srinivasa Ramanujan Fatma Ebrahim Elbeltagi
If that isn't enough for you: How about trying a few bonus questions? These are the real hard ones!