Process Paper

As part of our Social Studies class we are required to participate in National History Day. My two partners and I decided that we wanted to research a topic that related to our home city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We also wanted to choose a topic that greatly impacted the world in the past, but also in the present times. In researching topics, we discovered information about Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine. Since we lived in the city where the vaccine was created we knew we would not be short of sources. Shortly after starting our research, we planned a trip to the Heinz History Center to use their vast collection of books and newspapers to get a grasp on Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine. Everyone in the group contributed to the website in their own way to make the final draft of the website the best that we could make it. Most of the people in our group had a slight understanding of the website creator. Our only problem was dealing with the 1200 word count which limited the amount of information we could explain but was also a learning curve about refining your topic and not losing yourself in the text. In the 1940s polio was an extremely dangerous virus that scared the entire world. With the creation of the polio vaccine a huge turning point was achieved in the medical field that allowed the world to understand the concept of fighting viruses and diseases.