Learning About the Great Inventor: Thomas Edison Lesson Plans

Thomas Edison facts can inspire students to create their own inventions, and persevere despite adversity.

By Debra Karr

light bulb

 Thomas Alva Edison was responsible for changing history not through battle, but through using his mind. He is responsible for the many inventions that make our lives easier today. He invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the light bulb. In addition to making Menlo Park, NJ famous, he had the first industrial research laboratory. In addition, he helped set the groundwork for the way new inventions are applied to mass production.

Born in Ohio, Edison was the youngest of seven children. After being told that his brains were "scrambled" by his elementary school teacher, Edison was pulled out of public education and taught at home by his mother. Although his parents tried to encourage Edison to become interested in literature, his love of science and math prevailed, eventually leading him to hold 1,093 patents in his name.

As students learn about science and history in these next lessons, they will also be using language arts skills. Look at the long term objective of each lesson, and then pick the day's lesson, or one area, that meshes best with your class unit. Decide which strategies you will use to make your lesson more effective. For example, every lesson has at least some reading in it. What reading strategies will you implement: read aloud, think aloud, text chunking, quick-writes, think-pair-shares, or summaries. Choose different reading strategies for different days. This brings variety to your lessons and makes students active readers. You don't want to assume that just because they read something they "get it". Reading strategies help kids think about the material they are reading. Check for understanding by asking questions at the end of reading a selection, or ask students to summarize the story in their own words. These next series of lessons will give you lots of practice in orchestrating the strategies mentioned above.

Lesson of Invention:

How History and Science Changed Lives

In this lesson students combine science, history and language arts to discover the ways in which Thomas Alva Edison (and other inventors) created and discovered the gadgets, gimmicks and inventions that re-define the way people live, thus changing history. Through reviewing the scientific method with students (Research, State Problem, Hypothesis, Project Experimentation, Project Conclusion) and researching the lives of inventors, students will be able to piece together a timeline and narrative that explains and explores the industrial revolution, the lives of the inventors, and the process by which inventions leave the idea stage and enter into the every-day reality. As a warm up to this lesson, pose the question: "Think of an invention that can help make our lives easier" and give students five minutes to come up with a quick-write. 

Using 21st Century Technology to Learn About 20th Century Changes

Students combine technology skills (database tools), history and writing skills during this lesson. As they research on the web, using lesson guidelines, they will be able to string together the facts that they've found through their research and enter that information into their databases. Using MS Access students will choose five important "giants" from the last century (for example, Thomas A. Edison), and compile pertinent information that will make their final electronic presentations engaging. They can use authoring tools that upload pictures that assemble information in a user-friendly fashion and give the end-user the opportunity to learn more about the personalities that shaped the twentieth century and beyond.

Language Arts and Light Bulbs

"What is a patent?", "Who started mass production?" , "What was the first movie produced?". These are just some of the questions that students will need to answer during this lesson about inventions. As students explore and research an informative invention web site, they hone in on their writing skills by writing a six paragraph compare/contrast essay that examines the differences and similarities between old inventions and new ones.

 


Teacher Education Guide

Debra Karr