Lesson Activities About Inventors and Inventions

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Here are 4 activities that will enhance science lessons involving both historical and newer inventions. Encourage children to use their imaginations and think about their futures and inventions that might make their lives easier or more productive.

1. Divide the children into groups of three or four per group. Give each group a piece of poster board cut into strips approximately 8 inches by 12 inches. Assign each group a time period. Instruct the students to choose an inventor and invention significant to the time period assigned to them. Tell them to either draw, print, or cut out pictures of the inventor and the famous invention. They must also include a few paragraphs describing the inventor and his or her invention. Tell them to include information explaining why the invention was needed or why it was important. How has it shaped the world we know today? Include the time period on the poster strip.

After each group has completed the assignment. Attach the poster strips in chronological order to create a detailed, colorfully illustrated timeline of inventions and their inventors.

2. Instruct students to choose a famous inventor and create a poster display describing the inventor and invention. If possible, have the student include props and/or demonstrate how the invention works. Allow each student to present his project to the class. Display the projects somewhere in the school for others to enjoy such as the media center.

3. Develop a lesson plan around Louis Braille. Louis Braille is responsible for the “Raised Dot Alphabet” that we know as Braille. Provide students with sentence strips and paper clips or another object sharp enough to create holes or raised bumps in the paper, but safe enough for students to use. After studying about Louis Braille, provide students with samples of Braille material. Contact a local media center or The American Foundation for the Blind for materials. Allow the students to explore the materials with their fingers. Have them close their eyes and run their fingers across the Braille pages. Then, ask them to create a sentence in Braille using the materials provided. When their sentences are complete, have them switch with other students and attempt to read the sentences with their eyes closed as the run their fingers across the sentences.

4. If possible, take a field trip to a museum featuring inventors and inventions. After returning to the classroom and discussing the experiences at the museum, instruct the children to imagine themselves as inventors and work on a few inventions of their own! Allow them to share their inventions with the class. You never know, you might be inspiring a future famous inventor right there in your classroom!

Usborne Books Offers a 4-Book Series about a Fictional Inventor

I Am Jack (Book 1)

Jack is an inventor, a photographer, a handball player, and a joke teller. He likes hanging out with his friends; he likes going to school - until George Hamel calls Jack “Butthead.” Pretty soon, all the kids at school call Jack “Butt head.” Jack’s in BIG trouble … school is getting dangerous. Will anyone listen? Can anyone help?

A dramatic, heart-wrenching story about the power of bullying, and the power of love, family and community to overcome it.

 Super Jack (Book 2)

Instead of bullies, Jack must learn how to deal with his new extended family in this sequel to the heartwarming I Am Jack. Jack is going on a family trip, and now family means Nanna, sort-of-stepdad Rob, his son Leo, and Jack's friend Anna, as well as Mum and Samantha. Blending is hard work!

 Always Jack (Book 3) 

Jack′s life is pretty good - he has great friends, everyone loves his funny jokes, and
he′s an amazing inventor, but things are getting complicated. Nanna′s older and wobblier, and why does his face turn red when he sees his best friend Anna? To top it off, his mom’s wedding seems to be taking over the world. Something really scary has also happened to his mom, and it′s going to take all of Jack′s courage to deal with it.

From the author of the heartwarming I am Jack comes an insightful and inspiring book about the effect of cancer on families.

Being Jack (Book 4)

The fourth and concluding book about Jack - an ordinary boy who does extraordinary things. Jack still loves photography, surfing, and his crazy family, and things are going well until he notices that his best friend Christopher is starting to miss school and hiding out and avoiding everyone. And when a soccer game turns ugly, Jack knows that, again, the bullying has to stop.