Process  Paper     Hill  1    

Process  Paper  

 

For  this  year’s  National  History  Day  competition  theme,  Exploration,  

Encounter,  and  Exchange,  I  wanted  to  research  a  topic  pertinent  to  my  interests.    I  

decided  to  research  James  Watson  and  Francis  Crick  and  their  discovery  of  the  

double  helix,  as  I  am  currently  interested  in  the  field  of  medicine  as  a  career.      The  

discovery  of  the  double  helix  led  to  monumental  advances  in  biology,  genetics,  and  

medicine.    I  decided  this  topic  would  perfectly  fit  the  theme  of  this  year’s  National  

History  Day  theme.  

I  began  my  research  with  the  plethora  of  sources  provided  by  the  National  

Institutes  of  Health.    This  government  agency  has  multitudes  of  resources  including  

definitions  of  DNA  and  its  related  functions,  the  history  of  genetic  research,  and  

primary  sources  from  the  scientists  that  made  the  discovery  of  the  double  helix  a  

reality.    I  also  looked  for  books  online  and  at  my  local  library  district,  where  I  found  

several  informative  items  that  aided  me  in  my  research.    From  there,  I  looked  

through  YouTube  to  find  documentaries  and  informative  videos  that  would  help  me  

understand  DNA  and  gain  knowledge  regarding  the  history  of  its  study.  The  last  

stage  in  my  research  involved  searching  for  specific  primary  source  documents  and  

articles  on  the  Internet.  

I  decided  a  website  would  be  most  effective  in  presenting  the  story  of  the  

double  helix.  This  topic  involved  many  pictures  of  famous  figures  alongside  many  

diagrams  of  the  functions  of  DNA.    The  functions  of  DNA  are  very  complex  and  

difficult  to  picture,  so  I  decided  that  the  project  I  needed  to  create  needed  to  be  able  

Process  Paper     Hill  2    

to  include  the  amount  of  pictures  I  needed  for  the  audience  to  understand  the  

processes  I  was  describing.    By  this  factor  alone,  I  decided  a  website  would  be  the  

easiest  and  most  effective  format  to  display  the  story  of  the  discovery  of  the  double  

helix.    I  utilized  a  large  amount  of  pictures  in  my  website,  alongside  several  other  

formats  of  media.  

The  discovery  of  the  double  helix  perfectly  fits  this  year’s  National  History  

Day  theme:  Exploration,  Encounter,  and  Exchange.    The  reason  this  topic  stuck  out  

to  me  when  I  was  presented  this  year’s  theme  was  how  Watson  and  Crick  gained  

their  knowledge  to  reveal  the  double  helix.  The  argument  that  Rosalind  Franklin  

deserves  just  as  much  credit  as  Watson  and  Crick  in  discovering  the  double  helix  has  

become  a  recent  topic  of  debate,  for  she  performed  groundbreaking  experiments  in  

x-­‐ray  crystallography  which  ultimately  led  Watson  and  Crick  to  their  famous  

discovery.    I  realized  that  this  very  argument  involved  exchanging  knowledge  

among  several  scientists,  and,  upon  further  research,  I  realized  that  Watson  and  

Crick’s  discovery  involved  the  exchange  of  knowledge  with  many  other  scientists,  

including  Franklin,  Maurice  Wilkins,  and  Linus  Pauling.    While  conducting  my  

research,  it  became  apparent  that  the  exploration  of  the  functions  of  DNA  led  to  the  

need  to  discover  its  structure,  and  the  discovery  of  the  structure  of  DNA  allowed  

scientists  to  encounter  new  fields  of  biological  study  and  applications  for  genetic  

science.  

 

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