Nobel Prize Challenges — Student Pack

1 · Who Am I?

Read the four clues for each laureate, from Clue 1 to Clue 4. Write your best guess in the blank. Try to name the laureate as early as you can.

Person A

1. I wanted to understand a mysterious 'ray' energy that certain minerals gave off on their own, without any outside power.
2. I studied radioactivity and, with my husband, discovered two new elements, including radium.
3. My work opened the door to using radiation in medicine, cancer treatment, and the science of the atom.
4. I am the first person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the only woman to do so.

My answer: ________________________________

Person B

1. I asked why shining light on a metal can knock electrons loose in a sudden, all-or-nothing way that older physics could not explain.
2. My explanation showed that light comes in tiny packets of energy, helping launch the field of quantum physics.
3. That idea made possible technologies like solar cells and digital light sensors.
4. I am the wild-haired physicist most famous for the equation E=mc², though that is not what my Nobel was for.

My answer: ________________________________

Person C

1. I was frustrated that ordinary infections could kill people, and there was no reliable way to stop bacteria growing in a wound.
2. In 1928 I noticed that a mold accidentally growing on one of my lab dishes was killing the bacteria around it.
3. The medicine that grew from my observation became the first widely used antibiotic and has saved millions of lives.
4. The mold I studied was Penicillium, and the drug is called penicillin.

My answer: ________________________________

Person D

1. I wanted to know why kernels on a single ear of corn come out in so many different, unpredictable color patterns.
2. By tracking maize chromosomes for decades, I discovered that some genetic elements can jump to new positions in the genome.
3. These 'jumping genes' changed how scientists understand how genes switch on and off—ideas central to modern genetics.
4. I am the woman who won an unshared Medicine Nobel for discovering mobile genetic elements, or transposons.

My answer: ________________________________

Person E

1. I set out to tell American stories that had often been left out or told from only one point of view.
2. In novels like Beloved and Song of Solomon, I wrote about the history and inner lives of Black Americans with poetic force.
3. My books reshaped American literature and are read in classrooms around the world.
4. I was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

My answer: ________________________________

Person F

1. In rural Kenya I saw women walking farther and farther for firewood and water as forests disappeared.
2. I founded a grassroots movement that organized ordinary people—especially women—to plant tens of millions of trees.
3. My work linked protecting the environment to fighting poverty, defending democracy, and building peace.
4. I led the Green Belt Movement and was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

My answer: ________________________________

Person G

1. I questioned the common belief that famines happen simply because there is not enough food.
2. Working in welfare economics, I showed that famines often come from poverty and unequal access, not just food shortage.
3. My ideas changed how governments and aid groups respond to hunger, and helped create measures of well-being beyond just income.
4. I am the Indian economist who won the economics Nobel for work on welfare economics and social choice.

My answer: ________________________________

Person H

1. In my valley, an armed group tried to stop girls from attending school, and I refused to stay silent.
2. I spoke and wrote publicly for every child's right to an education, even after being attacked for it.
3. My voice helped make girls' education a global cause and inspired laws and funding worldwide.
4. I am the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize, awarded when I was 17.

My answer: ________________________________

Person I

1. We wanted to understand how bacteria defend themselves by cutting up the DNA of invading viruses.
2. Studying that bacterial immune system, we turned it into a precise tool for cutting and editing DNA at chosen spots.
3. Our 'genetic scissors' are now used worldwide to develop disease treatments and improve crops.
4. The tool we developed in 2012 is known by the name CRISPR-Cas9.

My answer: ________________________________

2 · Which Field?

Read each contribution and write which Nobel category it belongs to. Choose from the six categories below. Some are trickier than they look — discuss the borderline ones with a partner first.

Categories: Physics · Chemistry · Physiology or Medicine · Literature · Peace · Economic Sciences

1. Discovering the law of the photoelectric effect, showing light behaves as packets of energy (Einstein).
   Field: ____________________
2. Discovering and isolating the radioactive element radium.
   Field: ____________________
3. Discovering penicillin and its power to cure bacterial infections.
   Field: ____________________
4. Writing novels of visionary force that give life to an essential aspect of American reality (Toni Morrison).
   Field: ____________________
5. Founding a grassroots tree-planting movement that linked the environment to democracy and peace.
   Field: ____________________
6. Advancing welfare economics and explaining why famines happen even when food exists.
   Field: ____________________
7. Discovering mobile genetic elements ('jumping genes') by studying corn chromosomes.
   Field: ____________________
8. Discovering nucleoside base modifications that made effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 possible (Karikó and Weissman).
   Field: ____________________
9. Developing CRISPR-Cas9, a precise method for editing DNA (Charpentier and Doudna).
   Field: ____________________
10. Building AI models that predict how proteins fold into 3-D shapes (AlphaFold, Hassabis and Jumper) and designing new proteins (Baker).
    Field: ____________________
11. Foundational discoveries in machine learning with artificial neural networks (Hopfield and Hinton).
    Field: ____________________
12. Developing metal–organic frameworks, sponge-like materials that can capture gases and water from air.
    Field: ____________________
13. Efforts to promote democratic rights during a national political crisis in Venezuela (María Corina Machado).
    Field: ____________________
14. Explaining how new technology drives lasting economic growth through 'creative destruction' (Aghion, Howitt, and Mokyr).
    Field: ____________________

3 · Explain It Like I'm Twelve

Pick one prize-winning idea. Rewrite it so a 12-year-old could understand it — without losing what makes it true. Use everyday words, add one analogy, keep one accurate technical term, and include a simple labeled sketch.

Choose one idea

• mRNA vaccines: An mRNA vaccine delivers a set of temporary 'instructions' into some of your cells, telling them to build a harmless piece of a virus (like the coronavirus spike). Your immune system sees that piece, learns to recognize it, and is ready to fight the real virus later. The instructions break down quickly and do not change your DNA.
• CRISPR gene editing: CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool borrowed from bacteria that works like a find-and-replace for DNA. A guide molecule finds one exact spot in the genome, and a protein called Cas9 cuts the DNA there so scientists can turn a gene off or swap in a change.
• The photoelectric effect: When light hits certain metals, it can knock electrons loose—but only if the light's color (its energy) is high enough, no matter how bright it is. This showed that light travels in tiny energy packets, not just smooth waves. It is the idea behind solar panels and light sensors.
• Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): MOFs are materials built from metal points connected by carbon-based struts, forming a crystal full of tiny holes—like a microscopic sponge with huge inner surface area. Those holes can trap specific gases or even pull drinking water out of dry desert air.

Idea I chose

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My plain explanation (3-5 sentences a 12-year-old would understand)

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My analogy (It works like ___ because ___.)

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My technical word + definition (one term, defined in your own words)

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My labeled sketch (draw and label at least two parts)

4 · Before and After

Look at the evidence about penicillin. Then answer the question using the sentence starter. Separate a change the evidence directly supports from one that is only associated (happened around the same time but not proven by this evidence alone).

Question: Which change is directly supported by this evidence, and which is only associated with it?

Sentence starter: The evidence directly supports that ___, but the claim that ___ is only associated, because the evidence does not show it.

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5 · The Award Committee

Give out your own 'Curiosity Prize.' Nominate a real person, group, or idea you think deserves recognition — it does not have to be a Nobel winner. Make your case using all six parts, including one honest limitation or counterpoint.

Nominee (who or what are you nominating?)

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Category (e.g., Science, Peace, Literature, Community, Invention)

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Contribution (in one or two sentences, what did they do?)

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Evidence (name a source, date, or verifiable fact)

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Why it matters (who benefits, and how?)

______________________________________________________________

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Limitation or counterpoint (one honest downside, trade-off, or open question)

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