INVITATION

How can we help students understand and be inspired by the importance of invention and innovation? How can we help them understand the changes brought about by inventions and develop a sense of how science and technology have changed over time? How can we give students opportunities for connecting scientific principles with practical uses?

TASKS

Students research inventions from 1250 A.D. to the present, then write research reports and create multimedia presentations about the inventions and explain their impact on daily life at an Invention Convention.

TOOLS

Computers; the Internet; Sherlock; iMovie (optional).

AppleWorks; Destination: Time Trip, USA; What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?; World Book Encyclopedia; Zap!.

Projection device (optional).

INTERACTIONS

Students are divided into five teams, each representing a different historical period. They work closely together in these teams while they do their initial research; then, after each team member has chosen an invention on which to focus, students work semi-independently, returning to their teams when necessary for advice, ideas, and support. In Phase 4, individual students give their slideshow presentations to the class as a whole. Throughout the project, the teacher facilitates discussion and guides teams and individuals.

<STANDARDS

To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button.

SITUATIONS

Students work in the classroom or in any other location where they have access to computers and the Internet. In Phases 2 and 3, students can complete much of their work outside of class. Students will need at least several days to adequately research their time periods and inventions and to prepare their presentations. The presentations themselves will occupy part of one day.

ASSESSMENT

The teacher can assess student presentations with the aid of a rubric that addresses the clarity, organization, and accuracy of the information presented and what the presentations demonstrate about students' understanding of the selected invention and its effects on society.

Teachers can print the slides from each student's slideshow and include them in the student's portfolio.

Every modern convenience, every piece of technology we now take for granted, began as an idea in an inventor's head. The inventor transformed the idea into an actual invention and then convinced others of its value or importance. From there, the invention "migrated" outward into society, changing some large or small aspect of people's lives, such as the way they work, entertain themselves, or get from place to place.

In this project, students celebrate the power of innovation and invention by staging an Invention Convention. Students are divided into five teams representing different time periods: The Beginning of Science, 1250 to 1700; The Industrial Revolution, 1701 to 1850; The Steam/Electric Age, 1851 to 1940; and The Silicon Age, 1941 to today. Students research and present the significant inventions of the time they are studying and the impact of those inventions on daily life.

Phase 1: Researching inventions

Begin by inviting students (individually or in pairs) to explore the middle row of the cube in What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, which gives students some examples of how inventions are created and how the mind of an inventor works. You can also direct students to the "Invention" article in World Book Encyclopedia, which presents a great deal of useful information about the process of inventing and the significance of inventions.

Students then come together in the time-period teams to research their time periods, searching for specific inventions on which each member of the team can focus his or her research. World Book Encyclopedia and the Fact Book in Destination: Time Trip, USA are both excellent resources for this task. If students haven't already discovered it, direct their attention to the Invention Timeline in the "Invention" article in World Book Encyclopedia. Each group is responsible for making sure all of its members find an invention.

Once students choose an invention, they research it using the resources listed above, as well as the library and the Internet, using Sherlock to find relevant Web sites. Students can search resources by the name of an invention, the inventor's name, or the time in history. World Book Encyclopedia has hundreds of articles on individual inventions, a list of which can be seen by clicking "Related Info: CD-ROM" above the "Invention" article. Encourage students within each team to help each other with their research. Students can use the "Searching World Book Encyclopedia" and "Searching With Sherlock 2" Step-by-Step Cards for help with their research.

Remind students to save diagrams and illustrations of the inventions that they find on the Internet and in World Book Encyclopedia. They can record their notes and data using AppleWorks.

Phase 2: Organizing the information

Once students are well into their research, they should begin to organize the information they have collected and focus on particular issues. Each student, with the help of his or her teammates, should develop an understanding of the basic scientific principles behind his or her invention. How does it work? On what scientific discoveries is it based? Students can use the Sci-Clopedia in Zap! to discover the principles behind some inventions that are primarily related to sound, electricity, and light.

Encourage students to think about, focus on, and investigate how their inventions affected people at work, home, and school. What changed as a result of the invention? How much did it change? What impact did this change have on people? What jobs were created as a result of the invention? What jobs were eliminated? The automobile, for example, changed the speed at which people could travel. The use of cars allowed people to establish their homes much farther away from their jobs, leading to the rise of suburban communities.

Phase 3: Creating reports and presentations

Students prepare written reports of their research using AppleWorks. The reports should include scientific and historical information as well as commentary on the effect of the inventions on people, economies, and politics. When students finish their written reports, ask them to decide how they will build a presentation for the whole class in the next phase, the Invention Convention.

Students can create presentations with AppleWorks, aided, if necessary, by the Step-by-Step Card "Making a Presentation With AppleWorks 6." In addition, they can use the "Storyboard Card" template to help them plan and organize their presentations. The presentations can include a summary of students’ research reports and any other text and images they have found or created. (Some students, depending on their inventions, may be able to use the E-Book feature in Destination: Time Trip, USA to create their presentations. They select a time period and use backgrounds, icons, text, animation, and sound to illustrate how the inventions affected people’s lives.)

Phase 4: Presenting at the Invention Convention

Copy all of the presentations onto one computer, connected to a large screen monitor. After they have rehearsed and a time is set for the convention, ask students to present their inventions before the class in chronological order. Encourage all students to take notes during the Invention Convention regarding inventions and their impact on daily life to identify similarities and differences between presentations. If digital cameras and iMovie software are available, students can film the Invention Convention and then create a desktop movie which can be shown during special school functions or to future classes.

Vocabulary: Impact, Innovation, Invention, Technology.

Phase 1: Students can augment their searches with World Book Encyclopedia's Time Frame feature. Students choose a year, decade, or century time frame; the year that defines the start of that frame; and then the category "Industry and Technology." This is an excellent way of finding images of inventions and articles related to inventions.

Phase 1: In Destination: Time Trip, USA, students can search the Fact Book for inventions related to transportation, tools, dress, or household objects.

Phase 1: Students in the Industrial Revolution team can choose inventions from those described in What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, such as the Franklin stove.

Phase 4: For help using iMovie, go to the Desktop Movies in Education Web site.

PREPARATION

Tell a story to the class about an invention that occurred early in your lifetime, before they were born. What difference did it make in your life?

Conduct a class discussion about how inventions affect people of different ages and jobs. (Example: How does the computer affect a school student, a homemaker, and an inventor?)

Provide students with examples of the impact of new technologies. Consider, for example, the refrigerator, telephone, air conditioner, and light bulb.

Make copies of the Step-by-Step Card "Making a Presentation With AppleWorks 6" so that you can give it to students if they need help creating their presentations. If some students do their presentations as E-Books, you may want to make copies of the Step-by-Step Card "Making an E-Book With Destination: Time Trip, USA" as well.

Make copies of the "Storyboard Card" template for students to use in planning their presentations in Phase 3. You can also make copies of the "Storyboard Example" template to give students for reference.

Create a visual timeline of the student-selected inventions and post it on the walls around the classroom. Or, charge a student committee (one member from each team) with this responsibility.

Create a class book, "The Invention Convention Portfolio," with a page for each invention. Standardize the entry format.

Students can choose inventions by mathematicians, such as the binary and hexadecimal systems of numeration used in computers or the metric system of measurement.

Ask students to create ads for their inventions using AppleWorks painting or drawing documents.

For the presentations in Phase 4, each student can take on the role of the inventor of his or her invention, giving the presentation as if it were a promotional talk for the "product." If the presentations are oriented this way, information on the impact the invention had on society can be transformed into "predictions" of impacts the invention will have. This is an especially good opportunity to use digital cameras and iMovie since the costumes and role-playing will enhance the presentation. To add an additional element to the activity, assign certain students to act as reporters covering the convention for the TV news, and have them interview the inventors. These movies can be saved to VHS tape so that students can share them with their families.

BOOKS

Art and Technology Through the Ages by Jacqueline Dineen

Brainstorm by Richard Dooling

The Children's Atlas of Scientific Discoveries and Inventions:
The Earliest Discoveries of Humans and the Flights of Imagination Which Brought About
by Andrew Dunn

Great Lives: Invention and Technology by Milton Lomask

Inventors: A Library of Congress Book by Martin W. Sandler

100 Inventions That Shaped World History by Bill Venne

The Way Things Work by David Macaulay

African Americans in the Sciences
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov

Ask Jeeves for Kids
http://www.ajkids.com/

4000 Years of Women in Science
http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS

The Franklin Institute Science Museum
http://www.fi.edu/tfi/welcome.html

The Globe Program: a Network of Students, Teachers, and Scientists
http://www.globe.gov

Invention Dimension
http://web.mit.edu/invent