Curated OER
Innovation for Good
Many historical innovations were created for the common good. Get your learners ready for life as a critical thinker with this lesson which defines the differences between innovation and invention. They will conduct Internet research,...
Biology Corner
Technology and Inventions Project
Technology—what exactly is it? Find out with a project designed to inspire the inner inventor in us all. The activity begins with a captivating podcast and a search of multiple websites that display different inventions and technology,...
Curated OER
Inventions Over Time
Explore the inventions of the past with a project on ancient tools. After reading an article about hunting during the Archaic period, the Late Prehistoric period, and the Historic period, kids fill in a cause-and-effect chart about the...
Curated OER
Inventions 2: The Impact
Learners explore innovators and inventions. In this technology lesson plan, students investigate the issues inventors face as they tackle new technology. Learners design their own realistic needs-based invention.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Failure: Seeds of Innovation
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" Through this assignment, emerging engineers examine how failed experiments are simply part of the process of an outstanding design. They begin with some reading about the microwave oven,...
Henry Ford Museum
You Can Be an Innovator ... Like Henry Ford
Why did Henry Ford want to invent a car for the masses? Why did Henry Ford locate his factory in Detroit? Why did Henry Ford encourage the idea of a 5-day work week? Young innovators find the answers to these and other question in a unit...
Curated OER
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Classroom
Inspire critical thinking and facilitate collaboration with opportunities for entrepreneurial innovation!
San Antonio Independent School District
Inventions and Innovation
What effect did innovations like the Bessemer Process, the light bulb, and the telephone have on the industrialization of the United States? Here is a nice graphic organizer that will help your young historians approach this question.
Curated OER
Inventions in Everyday Life
Students identify and solve problems as they modify the design of an everyday household item. They gather and analyze information and work in collaborative teams to create a design plan for a new product.
PBS
Inventions
Use this lesson plan to discuss inventions that have changed your class's world and have impacted society. Middle schoolers investigate important inventions of their time and design an invention in a simulated business atmosphere. Modify...
Curated OER
Tang and Song China: An era of Prosperity and Innovation
Define the Changes in government rule that lead to some of China's most important inventions. The class explores the rise of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the first female ruler Wu Zhao, and inventions such as gunpowder, porcelain, and...
Captain Planet Foundation
George Washington Carver and the Sweet Potato
Learn about George Washington Carver's important contributions to agriculture by studying the sweet potato. First graders read about the inventor's observations and prepare sweet potato slips for the class garden. Additionally, they...
Middle Tennessee State University
The Invention of the Telephone
All of the people in your class would agree that life would be different without the invention of the telephone! Study Alexander Graham Bell's most famous and influential invention through the primary source document of his...
DocsTeach
Patent Analysis: J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss's Fastening Pocket Openings
Commonplace today, the zipper and button construction of blue jeans was a major innovation. Using the patent for the J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss innovation, individuals comb an image of the fly for clues. Afterward, they discuss its...
Curated OER
Timeline of Medical Innovations and Breakthroughs
Students identify on a time line and a world map where medical innovation/inventions line-up and originated. They collect information on various medical innovations/inventions using encyclopedias and medical research texts. Students make...
National Woman's History Museum
Inventive Women - Part 1
While a woman didn't invent the parasol, three women received patents for their improvements to the original design of umbrellas. In the first of a two-part series on inventive women, class members investigate the patent system to...
National Council of Teachers of English
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...
Curated OER
Inspired Innovation
Throughout time, innovators have taken basic ideas and changed them into creative and cutting-edge designs. Kids tackle the topic of innovations in relation to traditional or creative objects. They discuss traditional Navajo pottery then...
Teaching Tolerance
Inventing a Better World
From play pumps that provide clean water to shoes made from trash, innovators change the world one invention at a time. After researching various inventions, young entrepreneurs develop their own. Extension opportunities include prompts...
Winston-Salem Forsych County Schools
Economics Worksheet Economic Systems and Circular Flow
Agribusiness, human capital, productivity. Find out what your class members know about economic systems and terminology with this two-page economics instructional activity that that asks kids to identify terms and concepts.
Crabtree Publishing
The Genius of the Ancients
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. Fifth graders prove this with help from three lessons that examine how ancient cultures used their needs to drive innovations. In lesson one, pupils identify main ideas and supporting...
Curated OER
Papyrus to PDA
What a great project. Graphic arts students consider the social, political, and economic impact made by a chosen invention. They build an argument to substantiate their reasons for choosing said invention. They create an oral...
Curated OER
Learning About Inventions
This site contains a variety of worksheets and activities to supplement the on-line problem-based learning activity about how imagination and how inventions are created. TheWright Brothers are used as a case study. The links and...
Curated OER
New Sights and Sounds: Inventions That Changed A Century
Students analyze the role and impact of technological innovation in the late 19th and early 20th century. They evaluate manuscripts, sound recordings, and motion pictures to construct historical meaning. Students observe the connections...