For this assignment, you are to write a reflective essay on the portrayal of science in the media.  If you are unsure where to begin, this page could be helpful. There is a sample search for how to find information on scientists in the media in general as well as search suggestions for real and fictional scientists and how to search for information about them in the library as well.

To find some resources that discuss the portrayal of scientists in the media or what people's perceptions of scientists are, the below sample search could be tried.

In the search box on the library's homepage, put:  scientist in media

Click on Search.

Below are a few articles from this search that discuss how scientists are viewed or seen. 

To access this article, click on View record in DOAJ, then look for  the Full Text link located just below the authors' information and click on that.  The article should open right up.

You could also try searching for:

scientist image

scientist stereotype

If you need ideas about scientists, you could do a Google search for famous scientists.

To search for fictional scientists, you could do a Google search for fictional scientists found in movies and books

And then look at the lists to see if a character catches your attention.  While Wikipedia is not a source that should be cited in your assignments, it is a great place to look to get ideas and then go elsewhere to search for information.  They have an extensive list divided into genres, books, movies, and so forth.

For example, Eleanor Arroway from the movie Contact could be one of the fictional scientists that could be written about.

Below are steps and screen shots of a sample search to find resources that discuss her character (or any character that you picked).

In the search box on the library's homepage, put the name of the character into quotation marks and then the title of the work or some other identifier to help limit the search (something like Marvel Comics, for example):  For this search though, I used:  "Eleanor Arroway" contact

Then, look for something that talks about that character in a bit of detail.  Not just mentioning the character and nothing further.  You want to find some information that helps to expand your thoughts on the character and their portrayal of a scientist.  For Eleanor, I found this article.

After clicking on Full Text Finder, click on the link on the next screen that starts with Find the full text of this document in (and then it names a database)

In this article, this information could prove to be helpful in the discussing how Eleanor is portrayed as a scientist.  How she's very knowledgeable in her field fo study but is not as knowledgeable in the politics of handling and disseminating her findings.  And then there are different directions one could go from there.

As for searching for a real scientist, you could simply search for their name.   You can try it with and without putting it into quotation marks.

For example, in the search box on the library's homepage, put: neil degrasse tyson

And then click on Search.

Many items came up.  Scrolling through, these two seemed like they could be helpful for assignment.