On Thursday, Alan Hagedorn’s AP European History class participated in an activity requiring a mix of acting skill and research as they dressed up as scientists from the Scientific Revolution and presented their scientist to the class.

“I looked at articles or primary sources. My scientist didn’t have a large portion in the book so I ended up using a website like ‘Britannica,’” Magley said. “Research is important, and having to be the person really put us in their shoes and made us think about how they lived and made us research as if we were them.”

In addition to acting like the historical scientists, the students could create their own way of presenting these ideas.

“We would make a short presentation or speech where we would act like we were that person,” sophomore Brooke Ault said. “It really made you embody the person that you had to research because the whole chapter was mini biographies so it made you embody that person and see an example of a person of that time who was challenging old ideas.”

Students were able to choose from astronomers, medical researchers and other scientists. 

“I liked the sound of [Andreas Vesalius’] name; it sounded cool,” Ault said. “I chose Andres Vesalius because I’d heard of people like Copernicus and Galileo of the astronomy side of the scientific revolution but I hadn’t heard as much about the chemical and medical side of it.”

The purpose of the project was to both inform students about the figures and to make them seem more human. 

“It was to learn how to present things and to get better with public speaking skills and such, but I think it was also to learn the material,” Ault said. “I think it just made it more personal and less intangible. It’s like, ‘no, these are actual people who did it.’”