Curated OER
Inventions 2: The Impact
Students explore innovators and inventions. In this technology lesson plan, students investigate the issues inventors face as they tackle new technology. Students design their own realistic needs-based invention.
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
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...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Guess What Benjamin Franklin Did!
Students research Ben Franklin's inventions. In this invention lesson, students see the relationship between a need and an invention. Students will engage in a class discussion, read a handout, and play a match the invention to its...
Curated OER
The Impact
Students study inventions and how they have impacted us. In this investigative lesson students study the history of two inventors then pretend that they are an inventor.
Curated OER
What Is That Thing?
Could your class identify an old-fashioned can opener? What about a rotary phone,...
Curated OER
Hatching Chickens
Students discover how chickens are hatched and cared for. In this hands on lesson students get to watch baby chicks be hatched. They explore the chicks needs and how long they take to hatch.
Curated OER
Simple Machines: Levers
Students discover the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines. They practice basic engineering theory through their hands-on demonstrations of levers.
Curated OER
Simple Machines - Inclined Plane
Students learn the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines.
Curated OER
Blindfolded Building
Students build a Lego design and then work with a partner to reproduce that design. They guide the building of the reproduction by description only and then check their work.
Curated OER
House of H
Students identify the letter H and the sound it make through drawing. After identifying the letter H, students brainstorm words that begin with the letter H. In the computer lab, they use computer drawing software to create a house and...
Curated OER
LEGO Construction Basics-The RCX
Learners build a stable car after examining the RCX. They determine how to incorporate the RCX into their design using Legos to build a car.
Curated OER
LEGO Construction Basics-Outputs
Students connect motors and explain the function of the different ports and wires. They follow specific directions given by the teacher pertaining to the RCX and the program buttons of the motor. They participate in a worksheet/handout...
Curated OER
LEGO Construction Basics-Axles and Wheels
Students examine axles and wheels using LEGO materials. They investigate the uses of axles, gears, and wheels.
Curated OER
Engineering: Introduction to Legos
Students identify and examine various Lego building materials. They discover how to measure Lego blocks and cut out and paste pictures of the Legos on the Engineer's Parts List sheet.
Curated OER
Introduction to Plates, Axles, and Gears
Students are introduced to the function and design of the following Lego pieces: beams, bricks, plates, axles, tires, hubs and bushings. They then work with a partner to build something using only these pieces.
Curated OER
Electrical motors
Students investigate and experiement with a 9-volt motor. They will use the connecting wire and battery pack to discover fans.
Curated OER
Henry Builds A Cabin
Learners listen to the book "Henry Builds a Cabin." They design a cabin using Lego pieces based on information from the story.
Other
Positive.news: Children's Inventions to Make the World a Better Place
Children's imaginations are infinite - so could they help draw up the ambitious projects that we need to fight the world's challenges? A group was asked to design inventions to make society a better place. Here's how they responded.
Technovation
Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Invent a Biobot
Make a robot that moves like a living creature using a microcontroller, motors, and mechanisms with this challenge. Also, on this challenge find a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
CNN
Cnn: Toys to Tackle Climate Change: A Young Inventor Wants to Inspire Kids
This article profiles a young woman named Ann Makosinski who has been hailed as a 'child prodigy' for her toy inventions that use renewable energy. She earlier invented, for example, a flashlight that is powered by heat from the hand and...
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: An Era of Innovation
Students research and learn about the history of transportation. Groups design and present a decade in transportation exhibits to share with the class.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: An Era of Innovation
Students research and learn about the history of transportation. Groups design and present a decade in transportation exhibits to share with the class.
Smithsonian Institution
Lemelson Center: Spark!lab: Create Indoor Kite [Pdf]
Learn how Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, and Guglielmo Marconi used kites as tools to spur innovation. Then follow the directions provided to create your own kite for flying indoors.