Language Arts / Technology. Advances in Technology

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Whitney Richards
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1 New innovations can change our lives in many ways. Change can be very exciting and can sometimes be a little scary. give us new tools to use to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. They can save us a lot of time and energy and open up new doors and possibilities. They can also present challenges for us to overcome. Quest Atlantis challenges members to engage change in ways that are beautiful, positive, and wise. Introduction In this unit, Questers will explore inventions and inventors and explore the process of creating new tools, machines, games and toys that make our lives better and more enjoyable. MCREL Standards The MCREL Standards for this unit come from the sections on Language Arts and Technology Standards and Benchmarks Standard 3, Level II for grades 4-6. Goals & Benchmarks The goal of this unit is to have Questers demonstrate an understanding of the process of inventing, the impact of some inventions and to create new inventions of their own. Activities This Unit contains seven activities related to inventions and inventors. The culminating activity has the Questers design, develop, and share inventions of their own. Teacher Tips Teacher Tips for this Unit contain notes for teachers to use in the activities of this Unit. Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Pages 5-11 Page 12 Assessment The appended questions and rubric may be used to assess the work of the activities in this unit. You may choose to create a supplementary rubric for some of the activities. Page

2 1 3rd 4th 56 th Introduction Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." -- Thomas Alva Edison ( ), American inventor who patented more than 1,000 inventions are original tools, machines, games, toys or devices that help us in our lives as we work and play. They represent the indelible curiosity and creativity of the human spirit. They can profoundly impact human history or might provide a moments distraction and may come with unanticipated consequences. present a wonderful opportunity for educators. They can be used to frame lessons about sciences, math, history, social studies, art, diversity and multi-culturalism, and other content areas. can also be a wonderful vehicle for the stimulation of creativity. This unit contains a number of activities about inventions and the people who create them. Questers begin by examining what an invention is and is not. They then go on to explore famous inventors and their contributions to the world. They then make some choices about which inventions have made the greatest impact while exploring a timeline of important inventions in human history. Questers then choose an invention and explore its development in depth. They then question the impact of inventions that are a part of our daily lives by considering what our lives would be like without them. Then, in preparation for the final activity of this unit, Questers are asked to identify a problem of some sort in our lives or in society and consider how a new invention of some sort could make our lives better by alleviating us of this problem. Finally, the Questers are asked to create an invention of their very own. 2

3 1 3rd 4th 56 th MCREL Standards (Standard 3, Level II Grade: 4 6; Standard 8 Level II Grade: 3-4) Standard 3 Understands the relationship among science, technology, society and the individual Level II Grade: Knows areas in which technology has improved human lives (e.g., transportation, communication, nutrition, sanitation, health care, entertainment) 3. Knows that new inventions often lead to other new inventions and ways of doing things 4. Knows that new inventions reflect people s needs and wants, and when these change, technology changes to reflect the new needs and wants Standard 8 Understands major discoveries in science and technology, some of their social and economic effects, and the major scientists and inventors responsible for them Level II Grade : Knows about technological inventions and developments that evolved during the 19th century and the influence of these changes on the lives of workers 3

4 Language Behavioral Arts Studies / Technology / Civics Goals The goals of this Unit are to have Questers demonstrate understandings of: the process of developing a new idea or innovation and making it into a finished product some modern inventions and their impact on society throughout the world famous inventors and their contributions Further, Questers will design and develop working inventions or models of new inventions. QA Benchmarks The child should accomplish tasks that develop her or his creative abilities and aspirations. The child should demonstrate an appreciation for the complexity of events implications and consequences. The child should be able to articulate ways individuals and communities can impact local and global change. The child is committed to addressing global issues by way of solving local problems. The child should make connections between academic content and the real world. 4

5 Activity 1: The What is an Invention? Activity This activity will help you kick off the unit. The idea is to get your students thinking about what is an invention, where they come from, and what is their purpose(s). The concept of invention is much more complicated than it may look on the surface. One good activity is to first have students break up into groups with the goal of describing what an invention is. Specifically, they should first list its critical attributes; that is, what are the things that must exist for something to be considered an invention. Second, they might list two or three examples of inventions and one non-example. Third, they should produce a definition of invention. You might want to give them a handout to complete with spaces for these three things. You might also want to assign one student as a note-taker, another as a facilitator to keep everything on track, and finally a speaker to share what they learned with the rest of the class. After each group lists their critical attributes, their examples (and non-examples), and a definition you should bring them back together as an entire class. Have the speaker of each group share what they wrote. Then you should provide a definition of an invention, a listing of its critical attributes, and some examples (simple to hardest) in inventions. This activity creates a nice introduction to the larger unit. At the end of the class you could mention to the students that in this unit they will be researching cool inventions, famous inventors, and eventually even building their own inventions. 5

6 Activity 2: Famous Inventors are called inventions because they involve making something new. It takes creativity, vision, and research to make an invention. In Atlantis, we have many really cool inventors. These people have noticed a problem, carried out research on the problem, dreamed up a solution, and then made their invention. Alim and Kerbe actually invented the OTAK to communicate with you on Earth. They saw the problem when the Arch of Wisdom was destroyed and knew that we needed help. One night, while listening to music and talking about the problem and sipping some wheatgrass they had the idea of building the OTAK. From there, the rest of the Council helped to make it happen. There are lots of great inventors in our world and in yours. We want to know more about these great inventors. Who are these people? Where are they from? What is their life like? Why did they invent what they did? What did they invent? Deliverables Pick two great inventors. (Try not to pick just the famous ones. But pick two inventors from different backgrounds or maybe pick one male and one female.) Describe who they are as people and what their life was like? Also, make sure you describe what they invented and why! Then, make a Famous Inventors poster. Upload your work to the OTAK. Resources Inventors Index Invent Now Hall of Fame MIT Inventors Page Ben Franklin 6

7 Activity 3: Cool In Atlantis, we have been a little obsessed with inventing new gadgets. It seems like every week there is some new music player being introduced. Last week, Mara shared this new telecommunication machine with which you could not only talk to the other person and send video of yourself instantly, but you could send over smells through the machine no farting. They say we will have time travel invented by the end of the year. In this Quest, we want to know more about inventions in your world. Can you develop an inventions timeline of the20th century and share it with us? We hear there has been a lot of cool inventions in your world and we are excited to learn about them. Also, pick two of these inventions that you think are the most important and tell us why you think these are the two most important inventions in your world. Goals Develop a timeline of the various inventions of the 20 th century. Choose two inventions that you think are the most important and describe why. Upload your work to the OTAK. Resources: History of the Invention: American Experience: Historical : 7

8 Activity 4: Invention Report There are so many cool inventors and inventions out there. While we use many of these inventions, have you ever researched the history of any one invention? If you watched the Legend video you learned a little bit about the history of the OTAK. In a nut shell, we the Council designed it with whatever parts we could find and used some DNA gel packs that Kirbe and Alim created. To develop these gel packs they first had to go out and do some research on existing computers. We had to do much of it in secret. We want to know about inventors and inventions on Earth. In this Quest, you can use the resources below or other resources you know about to pick one really cool invention. Then, fill out the Invention Report Outline handout below so that we can learn from you about this invention. Lastly share your outline with us so we and other kids around the world can learn from you. Goals Choose one invention to research. Learn all about the invention and the inventor who developed it. Download the Invention Report Outline and fill it out. Upload your completed Invention Report Outline to the OTAK. Complete the reflection telling us why you think you did a good job completing your outline and your information is accurate. Resources History of the Invention: American Experience: Historical : 8

9 Activity 5: What If It Never Happened? Sometimes it is fun to imagine what life would have been like had an event not happened. There are so many things that have been invented that have changed the world. Imagine if the telephone was never invented? What about the music player, or the Lantian teleporter, or vaccines for diseases? In this Quest, we want you to learn about a bunch of inventions and the impact of these inventions on your world. Then, we want you to choose one invention and imagine what your world would be like without it. You can then develop a song, a mural, or even a story that shows or describes what life would have been like if this invention never occurred. Deliverables Choose one Invention Develop a song, mural, or story that shows or describes what life would have been like if this invention never occurred. Upload your work to the OTAK. Resources American Experience Historical Forgotten Inventors History of the Invention: 9

10 Activity 6: The Sky is the Limit There are many social problems in the world. Some are easily addressed and some take lots and lots of studies. Some of the vaccines developed in Atlantis have really helped the quality of our life. The ability to write ideas down and share them through our e-books has really helped society as well. Also, the ability to recycle has helped save our environment. Finally, some ideas like freedom of speech has also helped our society become more open. Another important idea is that people are innocent until proven guilty. What are some problems on Earth that you think need to be fixed. For this Quest you are to develop an invention, which could even be an idea like democracy, to help a problem that you care about. We look forward to reading what you come up with. Deliverables: Choose a social problem that you care about. Develop an invention that could make this better (Remember be creative. It could be an idea, a song, a concept, or a gadget. THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!) Describe the problem and your invention. Upload your work to the OTAK. Resources: Historical : Forgotten Inventors: Young Inventors: Ben Franklin: 10

11 Activity 7: My Invention In Atlantis, there are so many really cool inventions. For example, the water filter, the Cyber Music Player, the Laser-Based Retina phone, and the gel-pack DNA computer the DNA allows this computer to actually learn. These inventions have changed Atlantis in many ways, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The Council actually developed a gel-pack DNA computer called the OTAK, which allows us to communicate with you on Earth. can be either small or large, but they all can make a big difference in our lives. We want to know about an invention that you made. In this Quest, you get to be an inventor, developing an invention to address an important problem in your world. You can use the html links below and the Your Invention Handout to help you plan, design, and build your invention. Deliverables Brainstorm a list of invention ideas and decide on the invention you will create. Keep an Invention Log to share with the Council (download the Your Invention Handout below to learn what you should put in your Invention Log). Build your invention and take a picture to share with the Council. Upload your picture and your filled out Invention Log to the OTAK so others can learn about your invention. Resources Your Individual Invention Handout Use the invention link of the Inventors and Theme page it goes to the Girl Tech site. a) Becoming an Inventor b) Young Inventors c & d) Also, go to the Invention Dimension link or the Theme page and check out the Sites for Kids and Resources for the Inventor. 11

12 Teacher Tips 1. The topic of inventions lends itself to many wonderful ideas and activities. One of these is diversity. Inventors from different genders and ethnic backgrounds could be highlighted such as Katherine Blodgett, the inventor of modern eyeglasses and Garrett A. Morgan, the African American inventor who invented the traffic light and the gas mask. 2. The contrast between inventions and discoveries should be highlighted at the outset as Questers explore inventions in the first activity. 3. The act of actually creating an invention could begin with a homework assignment in which Questers identify needs in their own lives and in the lives of those around them. Once they can identify needs, it may be easier to imagine something that will help people deal with this need. 4., like ripples in a pond created by a pebble, can create far reaching effects and consequences. The potential negative aspects of certain inventions (or possibly even the Questers inventions) could be discussed. For example, the automobile makes our lives much easier in many ways but people have serious accidents using them and they contribute to pollution and the creation of roads which also impact the environment. The lives of people who live near roads are affected in many ways as well. The unintended impact of inventions is often as interesting as the inventions themselves. 5. If a Quester has a good idea for an invention but it is too complicated, they could be encouraged to create a model of it instead. However, the inventions should be feasible with current technology and fulfill some sort of practical need. 12

13 INVENTIONS UNIT ASSESSMENT Pre-Post Items (a) Short Answer: 1. What is an invention? Explain why they are important. 2. Who are two inventors? Describe what they invented and how it impacted the world. 3. What do you think are the top two inventions ever created? Describe the inventions, why they were invented, who invented them, and why you think they were important? Performance-Based Task: 4. Create an invention timeline and list as many inventions as you can. 5. Think of an important problem in the world and an invention that would make it better. Describe both the problem and the invention that you think would make it better. Also, describe the process you would have to go through to actually make this invention. 13

14 INVENTIONS UNIT ASSESSMENT Pre-Post Items (b) Short Answer: 1. What is an invention? Explain why they are important. 2. Who are two inventors who were women? Describe what they invented and how their inventions impacted the world. 3. What do you think are the top two inventions ever created? Describe the inventions, why they were invented, who invented them, and why you think they were important? Performance-Based Task: 4. Often time, on invention leads to another. For example, the invention of the wheel led to the invention of the cart. The invention of the cart led to the invention of the chariot, and so on. Write down one invention and then make a list of other inventions that it led to later on. 5. Sometimes bad things can happen because of an invention. Choose one invention that was made to make the world a better place but had negative consequences that its inventor(s) didn t expect.

15 QA Rubric Reviewer: Date: Quester: Quest: Purpose: This rubric is to assess both the quest response and reflection according to the rubric below. Instructions: Respond to each of the following statements with regard to the extent to which the description is present in the work. Then, tally your responses according to the chart at the page bottom. Note that while a Quester is completing her first few Quests, consider using this rubric leniently to foster motivation and buy-in. 1. Response a. The response is Accurate. (It addresses the targeted goals of the quest.) b. The response is Credible. (It uses sound disciplinary content.) c. The response is Meaningful. (It has value for the individual or world.) d. The response is Original. (It is unique, imaginative, and risky, and it shows integrity.) e. The response is Complete. (It addresses all of the stated goals.) 5 pts. 4 pts. 3 pts. 2 pts. 1 pt. If the tally for the response totals less than 19, indicate that the section should be revised; if the tally is 19 or above, then indicate that the work has been accepted. 2. Reflection a. The reflection is Complete. (It addresses the three components. 1 ) b. The reflection is Critical. (It addresses specific strengths or weaknesses of the response or the process.) 5 pts. 4 pts. 3 pts. 2 pts. 1 pt. c. The reflection is Comprehensive. (It accounts for all parts of the response rather than isolated elements.) If the tally for the reflection totals less than 10, indicate that the section should be revised; if the tally is 10 or above, then indicate that the work has been accepted.

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