Smithsonian Institution
Lemelson Center: Innovative Lives
At this site from the Smithsonian Institute you can explore the world of invention by learning about inventors and their inventions. Searchable by name or subject, it is a great way for students to learn about science and technology.
Other
Canal Kids: Grandes Ingenerates (Big Inventions)
An exploration of four defining scientific inventions/discoveries of recent history: plastic, laser technology, electricity, and bar codes. The history and development of these technologies, along with examples of their application and...
Google Cultural Institute
Google Cultural Institute: Favorite Technologies of the 1950s
Photographic essay recalls some of the best technological advances of the 1950s in cooking, personal hygiene, radio, laundry, television, transportation, and more.
George Eastman Museum
Eastmanhouse: Inventors in Imaging Technologies
See how George Eastman, Thomas Edison, and Wilhelm Roentgen impacted American film history and had inventions that were interrelated.
Other
Children's British History Encyclopedia: Victorian Discoveries and Inventions
An organized timeline featuring many important inventions and discoveries made in Britain during the Victorian period.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Technological Innovation
A quick comprehension check of technological innovation in the Gilded Age.
CNN
Cnn: Space Age Inventions You Probably Use (2007)
Some common items that help save lives every day or make lives a little easier are compliments of NASA technologies. This article features ten of these developments
Other
Hampshire Schools: Victorian Inventions
Find out about some important inventions from the Industrialized Victorian Era.
Birmingham Museums Trust (UK)
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery: The Victorians Inventions
Try to identify the inventions form the Victorian era, and then learn more about each discovery.
Other
Business Insider: 20 Everyday Things We Have Because of Nasa
A list of space technologies that have been integrated into common items from invisible braces to memory foam. NASA produces a list like this every year to illustrate the benefits to the program's existence. Click on each item listed to...
Other
Mit Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine by MIT which seeks to "promote the understanding of emerging technologies and their impact on business and society." It provides you with daily technology information including events, discussions, and...
NASA
Nasa E Clips: Nasa's Launchpad: The Great Boomerang Challenge [Pdf]
Students use the principles of technological and engineering design to research and explain how airfoil shape affects flight characteristics and how it applies to boomerang flight.. They will work in teams to design, build, test, and...
PBS
Pbs: Technology and Discoveries
Biographical survey of people who had an impact on 20th century technology and science, including Wallace Carothers, Rachel Carson, Lee de Forest, Henry Ford, Jay Forrester, Grace Murray Hopper, Guglielmo Marconi, William Shockley,...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Our Earliest Technology?
Made nearly two million years ago, stone tools such as the handaxe are the first known technological invention. View a picture and read the description of this early stone tool.
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Canada Science and Technology Museum: Washing Machines
The Canada Science and Technology Museum tells the story of the evolution of the washing machine. Starting from the laborious laundry procedure of washing clothes by hand, learn how laundry was first mechanized. Then, came the...
PBS
Pbs: A Science Odyssey
Website for the PBS series "A Science Odyssey." Numerous opportunities to explore the people and discoveries of science.
Other
Fno: A Questioning Toolkit
An article in which Jamie McKenzie states his belief that each district should create a Questioning Toolkit which contains several dozen kinds of questions and questioning tools. Portions of the Questioning Toolkit should be introduced...
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a radio program that tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity. The program uses the record of history to reveal the way art, technology, and ideas have shaped us. Episode topics...
Practical Action
Practical Action: Small Is Challenge
In this activity, students are challenged to look at technologies from the last 100 years and invent a product that could help us all lead a more sustainable future. Includes downloadable activity sheets, a PowerPoint, and a colorful...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: America at the Centennial
A lesson plan requiring student to analyze primary documents from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Students interpret what these historical artifacts say "about the lives and values of Americans in 1876" among other things.
National Academy of Engineering
Greatest Achievements: Telephone
This resources features an overview of the history behind the technological development of the telephone today and a timeline showing the important dates.
National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine: The Invention of Photomicrography
The technique of photographing objects observed under a microscope is discussed in this succinct site. Various pictures taken under a microscope are displayed on this site as well.
National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine: Spectral Detection
This concise site provides a brief discussion of the invention of the first work spectroscopes and their impact on forensic science.
National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame: William D. Coolidge: Vacuum Tube (X Ray)
This site provides a brief biography on William D. Coolidge, inventor of the X-ray tube, also known as the "Coolidge tube."