Jonas Salk, Leader in Modern Medicine
Alaina Franchi & Tessa Cory
Junior Division
Group Website
Process Paper
Why we chose this topic: We chose Jonas Salk as our topic. We did not know what we wanted to
do for NHD; we wanted something that we thought was intriguing. After hearing about NHD,
Tessa saw a memorial/exhibit for Jonas Salk in a magazine that caught her attention. Also, Alaina’s
grandpa was stricken with polio when he was just a child. We looked into Jonas Salk and thought it
would be interesting to do our project on him. We also thought it was very appealing that he lived
in our area.
How we conducted our research: We did our research using books, interviews and online
research. First, we went to the library for research, though there was only one book there we still
got a lot of information out of it. After not having much luck at the library, we typed “Jonas Salk”
into the internet browser. There was an online museum for Jonas Salk and on this website there
were about 15 links to primary sources for Jonas Salk. We also interviewed Alaina’s grandpa who
had polio when he was a kid. Through books, interviews, and online research we gathered a lot of
information to use in our project.
How we selected our presentation category and created our project: We chose a website as our
presentation. Alaina has made a website before and is familiar with how to make it. We are not
very good with making movies; also websites are fun to make. We created our project by
researching Jonas Salk. After research we sketched out our ideas for the website on a piece of
paper.
How our project relates to the NHD theme: Our project relates to the NHD theme, “Leadership
& Legacy in History”. Jonas Salk showed leadership in modern medicine. He left a legacy; he
changed and saved many people’s lives. History would have been much different if Jonas Salk had
not contributed to the world and a lot of people would have lost their lives if he had not found the
cure for polio. Jonas Salk definitely showed Leadership and Legacy in History.