Educator's Name:                   Janet Doty

School:                                    Bankston Elementary

School District:                      Greenwood Public

Student Grade Level:            5-6

Subject:                                   Gifted

Title of Lesson Plan:               Inventions

Unit/Theme:                           Inventors and Inventions

Objective:                               To encourage students to become interested in creating an

                                                invention by becoming familiar with various inventors

Instructional Format:

Students are given a list of inventors and a list of questions to answer about their chosen

inventor.  Students are then asked to create an invention of their own and to present to the

class.  Another option is to let students pick their own card in a hat and randomly select an inventor's name to research.  Students will need to write, prepare statistics of their

invention, prove how their invention works, create a poster about their inventor summarizing their work, construct an invention, use prior knowledge, have students present in a formal question/answer forum, and do an experiment with their own invention.

Prior Preparation:

Teachers may either ask students questions about their chosen inventor or give each student the name of the inventor and one clue about what he/she invented, without

disclosing the actual invention to the student.  Information about each inventor can be

found at the MAGNOLIA web-site.  Click on to Grolier Online and type in "inventions" and "inventors."  Thompson and Gale Group also has an article on "How to Write a Term

Paper."  Proteacher has information about "inventors" and "inventions," with a timeline

of popular inventions.  Listed below are names of famous inventors:

Leonardo de Vinci                Ben Franklin                                    Lazlo Biro

James Watt                              Peter Henlein                         Henry Ford

Thomas Newcomer                   Johannes Gutenberg                Carl Benz

Joseph Marie Jacquard            Conrad Gesner             Bill Gates

Oliver Evans                             Galileo Galilei                           Guglielmo Marconi

Alfred North Whitehead            Edward Johnson                        Hubert Booth

Thomas A. Edison              Antonie van Leeuwenhoek            Dr. Alexander Fleming

Alexander Graham Bell            Alessandro Volta                      Wright Brothers

Alfred Nobel                            Dr. Edward Jenner             Leo Baekeland

Chester Floyd                           Richard Trevithick                     Dr. Frederick Banting

The Stevens family               Issac Singer                           Philo Farnsworth

Robert Fulton                           James Stanley                         Bette Nesmith Graham

Henri Coanda                           Peter Durand                         Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Sir Joseph Whitworth                    Ezra Warner                         Arthur Fry

Michael Idvorsky Pupin            Alexander Bain                       Harris Tweed

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan            Edwin Budding                        Sigmund Freud

Elias Howe                               Thomas Edison              Viviene Westwood

George Westinghouse             Whitcomb Judson                    Elijah McCoy

Earnest Hamwi             Christopher Sholes                  George Washington Carver

Nicholas Louis Robert  Conrad Hilton                           Johannes Gutenberg

Benjamin Bannecker                    Elizabeth Lee Hazen                 Rachel Fuller Brown

William Coolidge                      Walt Disney                          Gertrude Belle Elion

Helen Murray Free                 Louis Pasteur                         Patsy Sherman

Eli Whitney                               Mathias Baldwin                        Cyrus McCormick

Materials Needed:         

MAGNOLIA for research

Computer paper

Information sheets

Construction Paper

Blank writing journals

Note cards for speaking points

Poster paper

Colored markers, colored pencils

Rulers

Scissors

Glue

Duration of Activity:                      5-7 days

Activities:

Students use MAGNOLIA to find information about their inventor in order to answer

questions and to write a 1-2 page report, double-spaced, 12-point font.  Students are

encouraged to begin their searches with Grolier and Middle Search Plus.  Each report

should address factual, biographical information.  An accurate "Works Cited" page should be listed in the back, making sure to include the used online resources.  Students are to present their inventor by stating the name, factual, and biographical information

of their inventor, as well as discussing the importance of this invention and how it has

impacted today's society.  A poster will be part of the presentation.  Students are also responsible for creating their own invention and presenting it to the class.  In their

log-book journals, students will begin each day writing what they are doing to create their invention, why they are doing it, why it is important, how they can use their invention, why they chose to create it, what they need to do next, and will draw statistical information in the form of diagrams, charts, etc. to help explain their invention.  Through a student self-assessment, students will explain to the class what they invented, why they created it, and give step-by-step instructions on how they created their invention.

Explore Activities: 

Students can create a poster by advertising their invention.  The poster will include an

advertising slogan, a drawing of their invention, a description of the product, and the

cost to market the product.

It will take one week to prepare the poster and present it to the class.  Students will need

to attach a materials list with the names of the tools and materials that were used to complete the project.

Poster paper, markers, colored pencils and writing paper are the needed materials.

Poster directions should include: thinking of an advertising slogan or name for the

poster; naming the invention to describe the invention; using block letters and writing

neatly for the title; marketing the invention by drawing the invention and how much

it is worth; presenting the poster to the class and having students pose questions about the

poster.

 

Formal Assessment:  

Cooperative skills reflection; group booklet produced containing recordings of the

invention "experiments."