Appreciating the pioneering scientists

I find it difficult to make students appreciate the pioneering scientists.
To go far back, it must have taken unimaginable courage for that first human to have taken fire from some source and use it. He or she would have to overcome a great instinctive fear to do that.
When I teach the course titled "Science and civilisation", I try to make them imagine what that must have been like-- the extraordinary courage of such unnamed, unknown individuals --and to appreciate what they have done for the human race. Maybe some students do.
But when it comes to chemistry, I don't think I do a good job at that.