Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Learning Lab: Stories of the Wrights' Flights

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This lesson plan has learners read primary materials from the Smithsonian collection written by the Wright brothers, and compare and contrast them to secondary sources, such as newspaper stories from the next day. There is background...
Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Who Were Wilbur and Orville?

For Students 9th - 10th
Classroom activities, interactive experiments, timelines, and other artifacts that celebrate the Wright brothers' first flight.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Invention of the Aerial Age

For Students 9th - 10th
Biographical details about the Ohio-born Wright brothers, who ushered in the aerial age with their invention of the first powered airplane.
Handout
Other

Symposium Papers: Following the Footstpes of the Wright Brothers

For Students 9th - 10th
A compilation of symposium papers that have been presented on the Wright Brothers which includes details about their lives, invention, and historic flight.
Website
Other

Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co.: The Wright Story

For Students 9th - 10th
A detailed look at the lives of Orville and Wilbur Wright, offering an overview of their childhood and career choices, their invention of the airplane, and the development and challenges of the airplane business. Provides embedded links...
Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Orville & Wilbur Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
Brief biography on Orville and Wilbur Wright. Read how the Wright brothers' work with bikes, kites, and gliders led to human flight.
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: What Was Right About the Wright Brothers?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this unit students will explore the lives of the Wright brothers. The end result will be a student-made documentary highlighting the factors that allowed the Wright brothers to succeed at manned flight when others before them had failed.
Website
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: The Wright Stuff

For Students 9th - 10th
Companion website to the PBS documentary on the Wright Brothers and their contributions to aviation.
Handout
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Inventor of the Week: Orville & Wilbur Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
This article briefly summarizes the Wright Brothers' scientific curiosity and ambitions which fueled their desire to create the first flying machine.
Handout
Science Museum, London

Science Museum Online Stuff: The First Flight

For Students 9th - 10th
An excellent article about how Orville and Wilbur Wright's interest in flight developed and led to the first airplane flight.
Article
Siteseen

Siteseen: American Historama: Wright Brothers Facts

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn numerous fun facts about the first powered airplane flight by the Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation.
Activity
University of Chicago

Flights Before the Wrights: Octave Chanute, Chicago

For Students 9th - 10th
A site that chronicles the life of Octave Chanute, an aeronautical engineer involved in flight before the Wright brothers.
Website
University of Chicago

Flights Before the Wrights: Octave Chanute, Chicago

For Students 9th - 10th
A site that chronicles the life of Octave Chanute, an aeronautical engineer involved in flight before the Wright brothers.
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Embracing the Impossible [Pdf]

For Teachers 5th - 8th
In this lesson, students explore primary resources to see what people who lived in the early age of flight felt about this innovation. They then compare that response to that towards an invention of today.
Article
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Libraries:taking to the Skies: Wright Brothers, Birth of Aviation

For Students 9th - 10th
An article regarding the Wright brother's history of flight. Includes pictures and further reading material.
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers

For Students 9th - 10th
Over 49,000 digitized primary documents having to do with the Wright brothers and their work with flight. A timeline of the brothers' work, a family tree, and other special presentations are offered.
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Postal Museum: Art of the Stamp: Kitty Hawk (1903)

For Students 9th - 10th
View the artwork for a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1998 to commemorate the Wright Brothers first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Includes a detailed paragraph about the famous flight.
Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The First Flyers [Pdf]

For Teachers 1st - 3rd Standards
"The First Flyers" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about the Wright brothers and their obsession with flying. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes: determining main...
Handout
Science Struck

Science Struck: Events That Led to the Invention of the Airplane

For Students 9th - 10th
Discover the history of the first airplanes and flying machines, and how the Wright brothers constructed their first successful airplane.
Activity
NASA

Nasa Quest: "Wright Ing" Prompt: Concrete Poetry

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site from NASA Quest you can learn to write concrete poetry by using the Wright Brother's airplane as a prompt. What a great way to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the first flight!
Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Wright Brothers: Inventors of the Airplane.

For Students 1st - 9th
Kids learn about the Wright Brothers's biography. Inventors of the airplane.
Handout
Other

Wright House: Wilbur and Orville Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is a biography of the Wright brothers and includes several pictures of airplanes.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: The Dream of Flight

For Students 9th - 10th
The Library of Congress has opened its vast resources and created an exhibition commemorating the centennial of flight. The library uses "some of its rarest and most significant materials," to present this aviation history exhibit. Be...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: The Dream of Flight

For Students 9th - 10th
The Library of Congress has opened its vast resources and created an exhibition commemorating the centennial of flight. The Library uses "Some of its rarest and most significant materials," to present this beautiful website. Be sure to...

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