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Thematic Teaching
innovation & invention: related resources
Activity Ideas | Related Resources
Find Below: PBS Web Sites, Other Recommended Links, Recommended Books
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Innovation: Life, Inspired
Explore fascinating inventions with interactive features and lesson plans.
Scientific American Frontiers
Examine some of the breakthrough innovations and inventions changing the scientific landscape.
NOVA - Technology
Learn how advancements in technology are revolutionizing communication, space exploration, and warfare.
NerdTV
Explore this new, weekly online TV show spotlighting some of the leaders in technology.
They Made America
Learn how American history was transformed by influential innovators, whose ideas and entrepreneurial spirit gave birth to commercial milestones.
American Experience - Technology
Journey through history and discover how innovations as diverse as the Hoover Dam and Tupperware have changed our lives.
The New Heroes
Explore the work of men and women round the world who are developing innovations that bring life-changing tools and resources to people desperate for solutions.
Art in the Twenty-first Century
Learn about the artists who are expanding the definitions and comprehension of contemporary art.
recommended web sites
Lighting a Revolution
http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
Tour two exhibition halls, one for 19th century and one for 20th century inventions by Thomas Edison. The focus of this site is to introduce the five steps of innovation, the preconditions, the invention itself, promotion, competition, and consequences.
Many other inventors of lighting are credited and highlighted. The section on "ink blotters" are ads for lamps of the early 20th century.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
How Everyday Things are Made
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
The Alliance of Innovative Manufacturing at Stanford University shows you how different products in transportation, candy, packaging, and clothing are made. Go to the Processes section to see video clips about casting metal,
molding plastics, machining, assembly and other methods to create the things we use each day. The helpful audio and animated introduction that shows you how to use the site requires Flash.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
Greatest Engineering Achievements
http://www.greatachievements.org/
The National Academy of Engineering presents a site about the 20 greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. The technological advances that have changed the world include electrification, refrigeration, telephones, water supply, highways, automobiles, and more. Each innovation has specific inventions on a timeline, such as the health technologies citing the first EKG, dialysis machine, and contact lenses. We usually take these innovations for granted, so as you browse through these resources, think about enormous technological achievements from the past 100 years, a relatively short period of human history, and think about the possibilities of the next 100 years. Some day your kids will say, "You didn't have THAT when you were a kid?"
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
recommended books
Fantastic Feats and Failures
By the Editors of Yes Mag
Published September 2004
Grades: 3-5; 6-8
Subjects: Social Studies
Innovation doesn't guarantee success, as this look at twenty designs for buildings, vehicles, bridges and towers illustrates.
And sometimes, as in the case of Apollo 13, failure can be turned into success. The representative projects are accompanied by photos, maps and diagrams. A glossary is included.
More Recommended Social Studies Books
Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human
By Joel Garreau
Published May 2005
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Social Studies
Perhaps the ultimate innovation is that of humanity engineering its own evolution. Garreau argues that we are already doing so with advances in genetics, robotics, information, and nanotechnologies. Yesterday's comic strip superpowers are nearly today's reality. The critical question to consider is whether innovation will lead to heaven or to hell. Garreau includes an extensive reading list for further research.
More Recommended Social Studies Books
The Man behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley
By Leslie Berlin
Published June 2005
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Social Studies
In 1957, Robert Noyce and seven others started their own transistor company. Ten years later, Fairchild Semiconductor had 11,000 employees and $12 Million in profits. This was only the start. In 1968, Noyce helped found Intel, the world's largest producer of semiconductor chips. This biography examines the inventor and entrepreneur.
More Recommended Social Studies Books