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Lesson Activities About Inventors and Inventions

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!

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