PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Forgotten Inventors
This illustrated feature from the American Experience Web site highlights the frequently forgotten inventors of several useful, innovative technologies.
Other
Toaster Museum Foundation: The Cyber Toaster Museum
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...
Other
Little Inventors: Ingenious Ideas!
Here you will find examples of inventions created by children. They submit their ideas along with drawings and plans. Many of these are made into real objects and posted for the inventors to see what they would look like in real life....
PBS
Pbs: They Made America
Companion site to the four-part series on looking at America through inventors. Focuses on inventors from the early days of the country to modern day. From Robert Fulton and Samuel Colt, to Ted Turner and Russell Simmons, this site...
PBS
Pbs: A Science Odyssey
Website for the PBS series "A Science Odyssey." Numerous opportunities to explore the people and discoveries of science.
Council for Economic Education
Econ Ed Link: Eureka!
Take a look at how inventions, such as plastic, have changed our lives and how they are changing the future of living in space. Learners explore the concept of invention and innovation by studying the use of plastics. Various uses of...
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
Bright Horizons: Nurturing Creativity & Imagination for Child Development
Imagination is critical in child development. Find tips to help nurture and encourage creativity in your kids!
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 869: 1876 Technology
Learn about the information that can be found in an 1876 issue of a magazine, The Manufacturer and Builder, about the tools, machines, and innovations of that era, including a reference to a young Thomas Edison. This is a transcript of a...
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Embracing the Impossible [Pdf]
In this lesson, young scholars 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.
How Stuff Works
How Stuff Works: 5 Strange Items Developed From Nasa Technology
Review an article highlighting five inventions developed by NASA that evolved into sought after mainstreamed creations such as baby formula and Speedo swim suits.
Other
Milwaukee Art Museum: In the Year 2121
Students research the advances of an invention's industrial design over decades or centuries. They then project future improvements and innovations with drawings and descriptive prose.
Other
Wake County Public School System: Core Concepts of Technology
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...
Other
Hampshire Schools: Victorian Inventions
Find out about some important inventions from the Industrialized Victorian Era.
Alberta Online Encyclopedia
Alberta Online Encyclopedia: Alberta Inventors and Inventions: Grant Skinner
Canada's top Macromedia Flash Developer, Grant Skinner, is highlighted on this site by the Heritage Community Foundation.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: William D. Coolidge: The X Ray Tube
Read about William D. Coolidge, his education, work, and his invention--the X-Ray Tube--as well as other medical innovations he is credited with. Learn how x-rays work and how they have contributed to the medical world.
The Henry Ford
Henry Ford Museum: Visionaries on Innovation: Henry Ford
Learn about the life of Henry Ford, and his work and experiments that lead to the invention of the Quadricycle and, finally, the Model T, which was introduced in 1908. This site offers a glimpse into Ford's childhood, his work at the...
Edutopia
Edutopia: How to Use Play for Learning
Play is a primary and integral mode through which children make sense of the world, and that it is essential to their development and well-being. This article offers ideas on how to balance play and academic expectations in your classroom.
Other
Learners Edge: Play in the Classroom
Play is not more important than science, literacy, physics, or math - it IS science, literacy, physics, and math. It is the FOUNDATION for learning. This article touches on the research supporting the importance of incorporating play...
Other
Atlas Mission: 7 Kindergarten Creative Thinking Activities That Are Fun for Kids
With so much emphasis put on classwork, common core curriculum, and even homework, creative thinking can get pushed to the bottom of the barrel for kids, even kindergarteners. Here are 7 activities to inspire creativity.
Scholastic
Scholastic: How to Promote Creative Thinking
As teachers, we play an important role in supporting children's ability in art, dramatic expression, and creative responses to problems. Creative power increases a young child's desire to learn and supports intellectual development. This...
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.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Unintended Consequences
Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences. [16:10]
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Time for Design
Students are introduced to the engineering design process, focusing on the concept of brainstorming design alternatives. They learn that engineering is about designing creative ways to improve existing artifacts, technologies or...