Informational Texts
Because History is way cooler when you tell the whole story!
Each story comes with an informational text reading and three extend a story assignment options.
Scientist Backstories Informational Texts
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Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison wasn’t just the inventor of the light bulb—he once electrocuted animals in public to discredit a rival’s technology. This engaging article reveals the brilliant innovations, fierce rivalries, and quirky habits behind one of history’s most famous inventors, sharing the untold stories your textbook leaves out.
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Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson wasn’t just a “human computer”—astronaut John Glenn once refused to launch until she personally verified the numbers. This engaging article uncovers her trailblazing work at NASA, from calculating historic flight paths to saving the Apollo 13 crew, while breaking barriers as a Black woman in a segregated workplace.
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Marie Curie
Marie Curie wasn’t just a Nobel Prize–winning scientist—she carried glowing radium in her pockets, unaware of its danger. This engaging article uncovers her groundbreaking discoveries, personal struggles, and defiance of the rules that tried to hold her back, revealing the fearless woman behind the legend.
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Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton wasn’t just the man who discovered gravity—he once stuck a needle in his own eye socket to study how vision works. This engaging article reveals strange experiments, fierce rivalries, and untold stories your textbook skips, showing the brilliant and eccentric mind behind some of science’s greatest discoveries.
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John Dalton
John Dalton wasn’t just the father of atomic theory—he kept a lifelong journal tracking every change in his own vision due to colorblindness. This engaging article explores his groundbreaking scientific work, unusual self-experiments, and the determined curiosity that reshaped how we understand matter.
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Albert Einstein
Marie Curie wasn’t just a Nobel Prize–winning scientist—she carried glowing radium in her pockets, unaware of its danger. This engaging article uncovers her groundbreaking discoveries, personal struggles, and defiance of the rules that tried to hold her back, revealing the fearless woman behind the legend.
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Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin wasn’t just a skilled chemist—she captured the famous “Photo 51” of DNA, only to have it shown to rival scientists without her knowledge. This engaging article uncovers her groundbreaking work, quiet determination, and the overlooked role she played in one of science’s greatest discoveries.
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Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler wasn’t just the astronomer who discovered planets move in ellipses—he once defended his own mother in a witchcraft trial and won. This engaging article reveals the mix of genius, drama, and eccentricity that shaped one of history’s most remarkable scientific minds.
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Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner wasn’t just a brilliant physicist—she helped explain nuclear fission, only to watch a colleague win the Nobel Prize without her. This engaging article uncovers her groundbreaking discoveries, daring escape from Nazi Germany, and unwavering refusal to work on the atomic bomb.
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Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell wasn’t just the inventor of the telephone—he once tried to build a device to save a wounded president, but it failed. This engaging article uncovers the rivalries, flops, and quirky passions that reveal the surprising human side of one of history’s most famous inventors.
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Mary Anning
Mary Anning wasn’t just a fossil hunter—at age 12, she uncovered a sea monster no one had ever seen before, changing science forever. This engaging article dives into her daring cliffside hunts, life-threatening close calls, and the groundbreaking discoveries that made her a pioneer of paleontology.
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Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker wasn’t just a self-taught mathematician—he once rebuilt an entire survey plan for Washington, D.C. from memory after the original notes were lost. This engaging article uncovers his wooden clock that ticked for decades, his bold letter to Thomas Jefferson, and the quiet brilliance that proved talent could outshine prejudice.
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George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver wasn’t just the “peanut guy”—he once turned sweet potatoes into everything from flour to rubber. This engaging article reveals how he rose from slavery to become one of America’s most celebrated agricultural scientists, transforming Southern farming and inspiring leaders around the world with his humble genius.
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Marie Maynard Daly
Marie Maynard Daly wasn’t just the first Black woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry—she uncovered how diet and high blood pressure damage the heart decades before it was common knowledge. This engaging article highlights her groundbreaking DNA research, her fight against barriers in science, and her commitment to opening doors for future scientists.
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Francis Crick
Francis Crick wasn’t just half of the team that discovered DNA’s double helix—he once burst into a pub and announced they had found “the secret of life.” This engaging article explores his bold theories, restless curiosity, and the controversial ideas that kept him chasing the biggest questions in science.
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Fred Hoyle
Fred Hoyle wasn’t just the astronomer who explained how stars create the elements in our bodies—he also mocked a rival idea on live radio, accidentally giving the “Big Bang” its name. This engaging article reveals the brilliance, stubbornness, and wild imagination of a scientist who never backed down from a debate.
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James Hutton
James Hutton wasn’t just the “Father of Geology”—he wrote a book so confusing that even other scientists gave up reading it. This engaging article uncovers how his sharp eye for rocks revealed Earth’s true age, introducing the idea of “deep time” and forever changing the way we see our planet’s history.
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Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel wasn’t just the “Father of Genetics”—his pea plant results were so perfect that scientists later wondered if he fudged the numbers. This engaging article uncovers his patient experiments, failed teaching career, and the quiet monastery work that grew into one of biology’s biggest breakthroughs.
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Thomas Midgley
Thomas Midgley Jr. wasn’t just an inventor—he once inhaled toxic lead fumes in front of reporters to “prove” his new gasoline additive was safe. This engaging article uncovers the inventions that made him famous, the environmental disasters they caused, and the cautionary tale of innovation without foresight.
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Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel wasn’t just the inventor of dynamite—he once read his own obituary calling him “the merchant of death.” This engaging article reveals how that shocking moment inspired him to rewrite his legacy, creating the Nobel Prizes that honor peace, literature, and scientific discovery.
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Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling wasn’t just a Nobel Prize–winning chemist—he also took spoonfuls of vitamin C powder every day and claimed it could cure the common cold. This engaging article uncovers his groundbreaking discoveries, bold peace activism, and the controversial health crusade that made him both admired and doubted.