American+Inventions+Project+-+Overview

American Inventors and Their Inventions Inventors and their inventions and how they shaped who we are today in America (Suggestion: Why limit this to only "American" inventions/inventors? Consider the global impact of inventions?)

Driving Questions:
 * Which inventions in the (19th and 20th)? centuries helped to shape and define our society in the 21st century?
 * What were the events that lead to those inventions?
 * Who were the inventors?
 * What were the circumstances that enabled the inventors to invent their inventions?
 * How did the inventions change the society during the time of the invention?
 * Describe how the original invention has been changed, adapted, modified, re-created and what has it grown into?
 * How do these inventions impact our lives today?

Objectives:
 * Students will select inventions to research.
 * Students will explain the impact that these inventions had upon individuals and society in the past as well as in the present.
 * How has the invention changed and become modernized over time?
 * Research what "society", "culture" was like back during the time of the invention.
 * Research the process involved in applying for and securing a Patent.
 * Invite "inventors" from the community in to discuss their experiences.
 * Culminating activity could be an Invention Academy Awards Ceremony for the most "impactful" and significant invention of the 21st Century.

Project aims:
 * Research inventions.
 * Explain impact of inventions on individuals and society.
 * Build a model of the invention.

Examples: the inventor add a dye or color to the substance for her students to play with and voila...play dough was born.
 * Steam Engine
 * Airplane - Space Flight
 * Electricity - Solar Voltaics
 * Refrigeration - Cryo-Genetics
 * Cotton Gin
 * Television
 * Radio
 * Internet
 * Computer
 * Ferris Wheel
 * Automobile
 * Movable type/Printing Press
 * Play Dough? It was originally invented as a putty of glue and it did not work-was not patented for this use, however, the inventor's sister was a teacher and suggested that