In this unit, you have learned about many cool inventions and inventors. There are many inventors, like the telephone or the airplane, whose inventors are famous. However, have you ever thought about what life would be like without many of the smaller inventions that we take for granted? Who invented glasses? Who invented chopsticks, or the fork, or bottles?
Before you begin this unit project, play this game online. Test yourself individually or as a group to see if you can tell the order of inventions. Which of these things were invented first? Click on the picture to play the game and find out!
How many of these did you get right and wrong? Were some of the answers surprising?
Your job in this project is to tell the untold story of heroic inventions! First, start by making a list of the top 20 most important inventions of all time, in your opinion. Take some time to think about some ideas. Try to be specific. For example, the computer is a machine made up of many smaller inventions. Which part are you talking about -The screen? The mouse? The harddrive? Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
Do you think the absense of some of these inventions would change your life? Are there any that you use every day? Make a list of the top 20 inventions of all time, and explain why you think each is important.
Then, choose one of these inventions with a more obscure inventor and do some research on how the invention came to be. In many cases, you might find that there was more than one inventor responsible for the item. Conduct some research and create a timeline to show the progression of that invention. Your timeline should show the different steps that happened before your invention was created. It can also look fancy and include many pictures and graphics!
Finally, use Prezi, PowerPoint or posters to make a presentation about your top 20 inventions to share with the class! You'll get a chance to learn a lot more about the different inventions in our lives.
If you get the chance, you might have a debate with your classmates about which inventions are the most important. Can you put together a list as a class?