Eureka! I've got an Idea!
Students will learn about the value of scientific thinking as they study inventions and practice research and writing skills to create a project about an inventor.
Engage
What would life be like without inventions? Encourage thinking beyond computers to brainstorm various inventions. Discuss how life would differ without these inventions.
Share some common tools like pencils or paper clips. The modern pencil was invented in 1564 with the discovery of graphite. The paper clip was not invented until 1899, only a year before the 20th century!
Let your students know they will create interactive projects to celebrate common inventions and some not-so-common inventors.
Assign an inventor to each student, or let the students choose an inventor they wish to research. For example:
Inventors |
Inventors |
Inventors |
Ask students to research the inventor's key details: who, what, when, where, and how. Students should explore the invention's historical, social, economic, and scientific impacts. To help students better understand events that helped shape each inventor’s perspective, have each student create a timeline of significant events in their inventor’s life.
Create
You may want to give students guidance on what information they should include on each page of their project, such as:
- Page 1: Title
- Page 2: About the Inventor
- Page 3: About the Invention
- Page 4: A Description of Life Without the Invention
- Page 5: A Description of How This Invention Impacted History
Students can start from a blank canvas or use the biography book template.
If students get started from a blank project, have them add text and image links. Viewers can then use these links to move in a nonlinear path through the project.
The Stickers library includes a Navigation folder with buttons and symbols for easy and consistent navigation.
Share
Create a new project with links to all the different projects and create a menu page that links to each inventor project. You may also want to place this resource in a school media center or advertise some fun facts students learned on your school’s news program or audio announcements.
Ask each student to share the highlights from their research with the rest of the class. Ask students to share both basic information and how they think the inventions changed society and impacted history.
Standards
English Language Arts Standards
Writing Standards
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Speaking and Listening Standards
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
NCSS—Time, Continuity, and Change
Students compare and contrast different stories of accounts about past events, people, places, or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past.
