While a woman didn't invent the parasol, three women received patents for their improvements to the original design of umbrellas. In the first of a two-part series on inventive women, class members investigate the patent system to...

Blow the minds of young scientists with this collection of inquiry-based investigations. Based on a series of eight videos, these "hands-on, minds-on" science lessons engage young learners in exploring a wide range of topics...

Students identify the innovations that have impacted their lives.  In this inventions lesson students write and present a speech on the greatest innovation of their generation.

Sixth graders read the book My Great-Grandmother's Gourd and answer short answer questions about the change of culture in the book. In this culture lesson plan, 6th graders discover culture diffusion, invention, and innovation.

Students brainstorm ideas to solve a problem. In this technology instructional activity, students share their ideas to class. They research innovations that could benefit the community.

Create a creature that uses air to create motion with this challenge. Site includes tips, lesson plans, and a place for students to document their design process.

Build a machine that accomplishes a task in an inefficient way with this Rube Goldberg challenge. Find some tips and a place to document your engineering process on this site.

Using cardboard, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and strings create a pine cone that opens and closes. This site contains lesson plans, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.

Build a zoetrope machine where you can animate a facial expression and the machine plays the animation back with this site. Site contains lesson plans, tips, and a place to document your design process.

Using common household materials students are challenged to make a flying raptor and control its flight with attached strings. Site includes lesson plans, tips, and a place for students to document their process.

Advance your way through everyday life by exploring the science all around you. Click on an innovation within each scene and answer each question to proceed to the next.

Review an article highlighting five inventions developed by NASA that evolved into sought after mainstreamed creations such as baby formula and Speedo swim suits.

Henry Ford's use of mass production strategies to manufacture the Model T revolutionized industrial manufacturing. This 3-part learning unit provides students with the story of Henry Ford and the Model T from an economics perspective....

Henry Ford's use of mass production strategies to manufacture the Model T revolutionized industrial manufacturing. This 3-part learning unit provides learners with the story of Henry Ford and the Model T from an economics perspective....

If you don't know that the incandescent light was a failure before it was a success, it's easy to write off some modern energy innovations like solar panels because they haven't hit the big time fast enough. Worse, the fairy-tale view of...

Students research and explore the importance of two inventions that people use every day: sticky notes and Velcro.