In the spirit of Halloween, Ms. Monica Taylor’s physics classes made tombstones for various important scientists.

“Some of the scientists are popular, and others are more obscure,” Ms. Taylor said.

“The purpose of the project is to learn about the contributions that scientists have made.”

Ms. Taylor has assigned the tombstone project since her first year teaching at Devine.

“I actually got the idea from a teacher at Southwest High School,” Ms. Taylor said. “They did it there.”

Students chose a famous scientist for their tombstone. The tombstone must display various facts about the scientist, including contributions that they made to their fields.

“My scientist was named Aryabnatta,” junior Kylee Nixon said. “He created Pi and wrote books. He was both a mathematician and an astronomer.”

The creation process made researching about scientific achievements more fun for students.

“It was really fun to make a tombstone,” junior Myla Miles said. “It was different from a boring research paper.”

Students learned more about science and history than what would normally be covered in classroom material.

“I learned that back when Florence Nightingale was training to be a nurse, nursing was frowned upon,” Miles said. “People looked at nursing as labor and didn’t think it was important. Nightingale made the profession well-known.”

Many students choose the most famous scientists for their projects. However, only one project can be made of each scientific figure.

“I got William Harvey for my project, but my first choice was Marie Curie,” sophomore Sydney White said. “I feel like William Harvey was more interesting to learn about than Marie Curie would have been.”