Famous Scientist Teacher Resources

Who do you think of when you hear the phrase “famous scientists?” Is it Charles Darwin? Marie Curie? Alexander Graham Bell, perhaps?

Our teacher team has curated and reviewed high-quality resources to bring into a classroom lesson on famous scientists. We’ve even found some great lessons and videos about scientists whose discoveries were instrumental in their fields, but whose names don’t come to mind quite so quickly—Nicolas Steno, for example, or Mary Sherman Morgan, the woman who saved the 1960s space race.

Augment a discussion on the scientific method with a video on the Presocratics, who developed a model for the way we learn about our world. You can implement a lesson that challenges learners to match scientists with their discoveries, or an interview project about famous and influential earth scientists.

Lesson Planet is the perfect research partner in your quest for strong curriculum materials. And who knows—the next famous scientist may be sitting in your classroom!

Showing 345 resources
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10 Items in Unit
Lesson Planet Curated

Ben Across the Curriculum: High School

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Benjamin Franklin: The man, the scientist, the inventor, the statesman, the legend. A 10-lesson collection introduces high schoolers to the many facets of Franklin’s character. Although developed for the International Traveling...
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15 Items in Unit
Lesson Planet Curated

Vaccine Makers Project: Elementary Lessons

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Two lessons introduce youngsters to vaccines and vaccine makers. The first lesson in the module asks learners to research and complete a graphic organizer that showcases the differences between a virus and bacteria. Groups then research...
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33 Items in Topic
Lesson Planet Curated

Women's History Month: Grades 9-12

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Wonder Women! In 1987 Congress proclaimed March Women's History Month. The resources in this collection celebrate the extraordinary achievements of women in all fields of endeavor.
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17 Items in Unit
Lesson Planet Curated

Ben Across the Curriculum: Middle School

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Ben Across the Curriculum is a set of interdisciplinary lesson plans that highlight the five central themes in the international traveling exhibition Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World. These themes are Character Matters, B....
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10 Items in Unit
Lesson Planet Curated

Ben Across the Curriculum: Elementary School

For Teachers K - 5th
Benjamin Franklin, statesman, inventor, President is the subject of a collection targeting young historians. The interdisciplinary lesson plans were originally designed to accompany the 2018 international traveling exhibition, “Benjamin...
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3 Items in Unit
Lesson Planet Curated

ScienceWeb Australia: Years 9-10

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Science Web Australia presents a collection of three units designed for English speaking high schoolers and utilizing resources available online. The first unit focuses on ecosystems, the second on plate tectonics, and the third on the...
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46 Items in Topic
Lesson Planet Curated

Crash Course: Chemistry

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Loosely based on the 2012 AP Chemistry curriculum, a series of 46 videos introduces high schoolers to organic chemistry. The videos model how to reason through problems, recognize different organic chemicals, their uses, and use the...
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PPT
Curated OER

Light - Stop Faking It!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
This well-designed presentation covers many important aspects of the science behind light. In it, pupils view slides that have a lot of the important vocabulary associated with science, slides of famous scientists who made important...
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Activity
Joy Uzarraga

Famous American Research Project

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards
Designed specifically for lower elementary pupils, this is a great biographical research project in which students research a famous American, and then design creative poster boards to help them "become" the famous American they have...
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Activity
Union Elementary School District

Famous Dead People Project

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Despite the slightly off-putting title, the instructions and activities detailed in these project guidelines for researching a noteworthy figure will serve as a fantastic supplement to your next famous person research assignment. 
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Handwriting About Famous Scientists

For Students 1st - 2nd
In this handwriting about famous scientists worksheet, students trace over a sentence about Thomas Edison and his inventions to practice their printing.
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Instructional Video4:33
TED-Ed

The Most Groundbreaking Scientist You've Never Heard Of

For Students 8th - 12th Standards
Nicolas Steno invented stratigraphy, compared the anatomy of various animals, broke ground for geology and evolutionary theory—and yet he is not often mentioned in the history books. Learn more about the scientists who laid the...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

The Black Scientific Renaissance of the 1970s-90s: African American Scientists at Bell Laboratories

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
A two-part lesson asks young scientists to research the contributions of African American scientists at Bell Laboratories. After presenting their findings, class members watch two demonstrations that introduce them to total internal...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Word Search-Scientists

For Students 3rd - 4th
In this science word search instructional activity, students search for 30 proper names of famous scientists. This is a light bulb shaped word puzzle with a word bank.
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Instructional Video12:32
Crash Course

The Presocratics: Crash Course History of Science #2

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
How did early scientists arrive at the notion that everything was made of atoms? Meet the Presocratics during the second installment in an engaging History of Science series. Viewers discover how these pioneers developed a model for...
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Instructional Video2:20
Teacher's Pet

History of Evolutionary Thought

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly created the theory of evolution by natural selection. The video explains the scientists that came before and after this pivotal moment. Many still debate why we often forget about Wallace...
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Instructional Video9:04
Stated Clearly

What Caused Life's Major Evolutionary Transitions?

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Scientists regularly observe evolution, but what are the major transitions? A short, engaging video explains the transition from genes to genomes, and then highlights the move from simple cells to complex cells. Finally, the narrator...
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Instructional Video2:24
Be Smart

Building Curiosity

For Students 6th - 12th
Watch a team construct a Lego model of the Curiosity rover with an engaging video. It includes quotes about the importance of curiosity from scientists such as Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, and...
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Instructional Video4:43
Be Smart

How Many Species Are There?

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Scientists discover over 15,000 new species each year. Despite studying life on our planet for all of human history, we still don't know how many species exist on Earth. An informative video from a biology playlist presents the dilemma,...
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PPT
Science Geek

Measurement of Pressure and Temperature

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
We all have standards and scientists are no exception. Presentation covers standard temperature, standard pressure, temperature conversions, and absolute zero. It explains pressure using pascals, mm of mercury, atmosphere, and torr, then...
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Instructional Video9:42
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Crash Course

The History of Atomic Chemistry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Take a historic view of our knowledge of atoms with a video that explores the discoveries of many scientists including Leucippus, Democritus, Rutherford, Bohr, Heisenburg, and more. 
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PPT
Mr. E. Science

Atoms and Bonding

For Students 7th - 8th Standards
I don't trust atoms because they make up everything. Budding scientists learn about famous scientists connected to atomic models, chemical, ionic, and hydrogen bonds. The presentation also presents how to count atoms in an equation,...
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Instructional Video4:22
TED-Ed

Who is Alexander von Humboldt?

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Never heard of Alexander von Humboldt? Don't miss the opportunity to tell your class about "the most important forgotten man of science." The narrator describes an array of Humboldt's scientific accomplishments in his five-year journey...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Famous Painters Quiz 1

For Students 6th - 12th
In this famous painters worksheet, learners answer short answer questions about famous painters and the paintings they painted. Students complete 20 short answer questions.

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