Assignment - Infographics - 099

Objective

Create a timeline infographic in Canva mapping major scientific discoveries from 1600 to 2020, organized chronologically and color-coded by field.

Important Note on Accuracy

Look up each discovery online before adding it. Include the scientist’s name, year, and field. Some discoveries have disputed dates or multiple contributors - note this where relevant.

Instructions

Step 1: Choose Your Discoveries

Select 15 to 20 discoveries spread across the full period. Cover a range of fields. Some to research:

• Galileo’s telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter (1610)
• Newton’s law of universal gravitation (1687)
• Discovery of oxygen (Priestley and Scheele, 1770s)
• Vaccination against smallpox (Jenner, 1796)
• Evolution by natural selection (Darwin, 1859)
• Germ theory of disease (Pasteur, 1860s)
• Periodic table of elements (Mendeleev, 1869)
• X-rays (Röntgen, 1895)
• Radioactivity (Marie and Pierre Curie, 1898)
• Theory of special relativity (Einstein, 1905)
• General theory of relativity (Einstein, 1915)
• Discovery of penicillin (Fleming, 1928)
• Structure of DNA (Watson, Crick, and Franklin, 1953)
• Plate tectonics confirmed (1960s)
• Human genome fully sequenced (2003)
• Detection of gravitational waves (LIGO team, 2015)

Step 2: For Each Discovery Include

• Year
• Discovery name
• Scientist(s) involved
• Field of science
• One line on what it revealed or changed

Step 3: Build in Canva

• Horizontal timeline from 1600 to 2020.
• Color-code entries by field: blue for physics, green for biology, red for chemistry, orange for medicine.
• Add a small icon for each field.
• Alternate entries above and below the axis to reduce crowding.
• Include a color legend.

Required Elements

• At least 15 discoveries with year, scientist, and one-line description.
• Color-coded by field of science.
• A legend showing the color for each field.
• Title: “Major Scientific Discoveries: 1600-2020.”