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,...

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...

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...

What would change in your daily life due to a power outage? Here, learners explore the inventions brought to us by the one and only, Thomas Edison, and imagine a day without them. Scholars take part in a grand conversation and write a...

Wrap up the unit in one final design. Pairs use their knowledge of aviation to design new flying machines and record how their designs take into consideration the forces that act upon airplanes. The pupils determine whether their designs...

What effect could one person's invention have on the human race? In the case of the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, small improvements in farming methods led to increased food production. The human population began to boom, leading us...

Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...

Ideas take flight in an exciting activity exploring the Wright Brothers. Scholars view the Wright Brothers' patent for their flying machine and makes educated guesses as to the purpose of the document. Scholars discuss the purpose of...

Humans love to communicate and they do it in so many different ways. The class investigates how people have used new inventions and technological innovations to communicate. They are divided into groups of three or four and given...

The printing process was a technological innovation that revolutionized the modern world. Your learners with visual impairments can experience this process by creating a print by using letterpress printing. They use cardboard, glue, and...

Discover how to program objects to move on a screen. In the second lab of a five-part unit, each learner uses block instructions to program a sprite to follow their mouse (cursor). They investigate how to use these same block...

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about popular inventions and how they have changed throughout the year, including: the telephone, the calculator, the television, and the clock. A question sheet is available to...

Breakfast without toast? It wasn't until the early 1900s that this amazing invention was discovered. Learn interesting and fascinating facts behind the invention of the toaster while viewing pictures of the many different designs through...

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.

Students learn about biomimicry and how engineers often imitate nature in the design of innovative new products. They demonstrate their knowledge of biomimicry by practicing brainstorming and designing a new product based on what they...

In this assignment you are asked to identify significant inventions or innovations in our world today, and place them in the appropriate category. These things may have existed for a long time, or they might just recently have been...

Apply knowledge of simple machines to design on paper and then construct a device that will open a door from across the room.

Pretend play inspires imagination...that's where the real learning begins! This lesson centers around the book "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper. Each character has a special role in creating the soup, so centers can be set up for the...