Electricity, Magnetism, and Inventors, Oh, My!

We've been researching the contributions of Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, and Thomas Edison to electricity.  We started with some books and print articles.

• Now & Ben: the modern inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Baretta (also a short video)
• Michael Faraday: apprentice to science by Sam and Beryl Epstein
• Thomas Edison by Paul Joseph
• Thomas Edison: a brilliant inventor by Time for Kids
• Thomas Edison: a photo-illustrated biography by Greg Linder
• I had to supplement the book on Michael Faraday with several kid friendly articles because the book isn't exactly an easy read.

The goal is to find the following information and turn it into a newspaper article:

            Inventor Name

            Contribution to Electricity

            3 Interesting Facts About Their Life

            Illustration of Contribution and/or Inventor

 

After students get all the information they can from the books, students go to the computer lab to further research using websites.  The ones we use are:
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin

Once the draft is written on notebook paper, students input information into a newspaper generator template.

 

What alternatives to the basic research report do you use?