Henry Ford Museum
You Can Be an Innovator ... Like Henry Ford
Why did Henry Ford want to invent a car for the masses? Why did Henry Ford locate his factory in Detroit? Why did Henry Ford encourage the idea of a 5-day work week? Young innovators find the answers to these and other question in a unit...
PBS
Inventions
Use this lesson plan to discuss inventions that have changed your class's world and have impacted society. Middle schoolers investigate important inventions of their time and design an invention in a simulated business atmosphere. Modify...
Curated OER
Inventions in Everyday Life
Students identify and solve problems as they modify the design of an everyday household item. They gather and analyze information and work in collaborative teams to create a design plan for a new product.
Biology Corner
Technology and Inventions Project
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,...
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
Innovative Inventions
Help your scholars get a grasp on the chronology of the Industrial Revolution with this "Innovative Inventions" worksheet. They discover what year various items were invented, and then create a timeline placing each invention and...
Scholastic
It's a Whatchamacallit
Learners formulate new applications for simple machines in an original invention that solves a common problem. They brainstorm ideas for a new product using simple machines and communicate a finished project through an oral,...
Curated OER
Early Industrialization
Students explore early industrialization, technology, and invention. In this historical lesson plan, students participate in eleven different activities in order to understand the Industrialization of the United States. Activities...
Curated OER
Made in China
Students create a power point presentation. In this Chinese inventions and discoveries lesson, students view sample products that are the product of ancient Chinese civilizations and their innovations and discoveries. ...
New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park
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...
Curated OER
Play With a Purpose
Students consider toys as more than items for playing, compare and contrast inventors and toys they created, and discuss purpose of specific toys, including whether toy was created for education, financial success, or both.
National Council of Teachers of English
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...
Council for Economic Education
The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
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...
Curated OER
Innovation Nation
Students examine inventions that began in the UK but were marketed in the US or Japan. They match British inventions to their inventors. They determine what type of language is best used when describing these inventions.
Curated OER
Look! You're Wearing Geography
Sixth graders explore economic systems. In this economics lesson plan, 6th graders discover global markets. Students work in small groups to identify where their clothing and materials originated. Students locate countries on a map and...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: GREAT TO COMMUNICATE
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...
Curated OER
Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Students, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
Curated OER
Block Buster
Here is a unique and innovative game which will help your charges learn the important skill of proofreading and editing their own writing. The class is divided up into groups, and each group uses actual samples of writing from students...
Curated OER
Technology and Change
Pupils write a paragraph explaining how a technological innovation from a particular country has affected the world. Using a variety of resources, students identify a technological innovation, giving accurate historical and functional...
Curated OER
The African American Inventor
Students study various African American inventors and their contributions. They select their favorite invention and work in groups to research a specific African American inventor. After conducting their research, they share their...
Curated OER
Survey Savvy
Students explore various aspects of design innovation. In this design lesson, links are provided to three innovations from the Design for the Other 90% Web site in order for students to study and evaluate them. Students are challenged to...
Curated OER
The Golden Gate Bridge
In this comprehension instructional activity, students read and respond to five multiple choice questions about the story. Then they explain in a short answer response why there were people who opposed to the building of the Golden Gate...
Curated OER
Migration and Technology
Pupils identify a technological innovation associated with human migration, either forced or voluntary. They explain how the migration was influenced by technology and how technology influences migration through a written essay.
Curated OER
Economics Lesson: The Real McCoy
Students research the origination of the expression "The Real McCoy." In this economics research instructional activity, students read the book The Real McCoy. Students examine Elijah McCoy and his invention of the oil cup and how it...