Process Paper

Prior to this project, I was always amazed by the diversity of animals on our

planet. My curiosity led me to different sources of information that explained the

reason behind it. I encountered many books and websites that put it in simple

terms and described a process called evolution. In doing this however, I still lacked

a good understanding and needed more information. As I continued searching, I

became aware of a discovery made by a man in the 1800s. His name was Charles

Darwin. His ideas bewildered me. Natural selection was such a simple, obvious

concept once grasped, yet I had never thought of it. And so I had been affected

greatly by this discovery, A change in the interpretation of human and animal

history all caused by Darwin’s discoveries. The NHD Leadership and Legacy

project provided me the opportunity to study and present about a leader who I was

personally affected by.

During my research for this project, I had the privilege of many sources at

my disposal. At first, I read and analyzed Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an

Extraordinary Man, a biography by author and former professor at Ohio State

University, Tim M. Berra. In addition to this book, I used online reference sources

such as World Book Advanced Online and Gale Virtual Reference Library. These

secondary sources provided background and current understandings on the events

in Darwin’s life. This was helpful as I was able to compare and contrast these more

current writings to the primary sources I also analyzed. I came across a website

called Darwin Online, a large source that includes thousands of manuscripts,

books, and letters written or received by Darwin. I used many sources from this

website. The personal accounts of Darwin helped me gained an understanding of

his personality. In addition, it helped me greatly to visualize the way Darwin

believed what his discovery meant.

Apart from my interest in Darwin’s theory, I am also very tech savvy. I have

learned how to do basic programing in HTML, the language used to develop

websites. When this project presented the option to display my work through a

website, I was excited to put my skills to the test. Also, I thought it would be

interesting and effective to give the website a look that of something current to the

time of Darwin. This would enhance the experience of my project as it depicts the

time period in which he lived.

Charles Darwin was a suitable topic choice for the theme, “Leadership and

Legacy.” The ideas presented in his writings gave evidence and an explanation as

to how species are related and how they came to be. This led to a common belief

that was accepted by scientist everywhere. The legacy of Darwin lives on in his

ideas of natural selection and evolution. These discoveries shaped the history of

biology, offering diverse ways to solve issues like illnesses, or make discoveries

such as a new species or ones relation to another.