TeachersFirst Resource Listings

Subject Results by title Records 1 to 20 of 46

Grades 6 to 12

Time Magazine created this site to commemorate the centennial of powered flight in fall, 2003. Predictably, the site relies heavily on the rich archive of Time-Life photos from the early twentieth century. There are also articles and commentary on many aspects of the growth of commercial and military aviation.
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In the Classroom:
Teachers will find both history and science connections at this site.

A Medieval Technology Timeline -

Grades 5 to 12

There's more here than meets the eye. This site offers a time-line showing the evolution of simple tools and technologies during the middle ages. Those who are persistent will also find more detailed drawings and explanations of the various implements. This is a great site to show how major changes can arise from simple inventions.
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Across the Curriculum with the Wright Brothers - NASA

Grades 4 to 12

Another NASA site, this resource has as its emphasis a cross-curricular approach to the centennial of flight. There are links to History (Wright time lines, history of flight timelines, history of NASA); Science, Math & Technology (posters, links to other sites, links to lesson plans), Geography (featuring some stunning satellite photos of Kitty Hawk and other Wright-related sites), Language Arts (related books, a link to poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, a friend of the Wright Brothers’), and Careers (as inventors and in aeronautics, with a special emphasis on women in aeronautics).
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In the Classroom:
This site is the definition of a 2-fer! On one hand, NASA provides free lesson plans and activities for educators teaching about about space exploration. In addition, the site has plenty of web activities to make it the perfect learning station. Save it as a favorite on classroom computers and allow students to work on it in pairs or cooperative learning groups.

Become an Inventor -

Grades 5 to 8

Users interested in creating an inventions/inventors unit will find this site useful. It shows students the inquisitive process by which inventions come to be, and gives students a chance to search out problems that need inventive solutions. Lots of links to other inventors give you a way to show how others developed their own inventions.
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Benjamin Franklin: An Extaordinary Life, An Electric Mind - PBS

Grades 7 to 12

Learn about the colorful life and world of Ben Franklin through this series of eight downloadable lesson plans that explore the statesman's many talents and contributions. Topics include Poor Richard's Almanack, superstition vs. science, volunteerism and citizenship, colonial "broadsides" and almanacs, the art of invention, and more. Aligned to National Standards.
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Centennial of Flight: Rediscovering the Challenges of Flight - NASA

Grades 2 to 12

Click on "Educator Resources" for a collection of lesson plans focused on the NASA project to replicate the Wright Brothers’ 1903 Flight. Includes information on meeting national standards, assessment activities, profiles on famous people related to flight and further internet resources.
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In the Classroom:
Lesson plans focus on all grade levels from K-12.

Countdown to Kitty Hawk - Experimental Aviation Association

Grades 6 to 12

A site maintained by the Experimental Aviation Association and the Ford Motor Company, it is focused on the replication of the "Wright Flyer" the plane flown by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Most of the site consists of side by side comparisons between the original Flyer and the 2003 replica. Not as rich as many of the other sites about the Wrights.
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Design Squad - PBS Kids GO!

Grades 4 to 9

Are you looking for a new way to get your students excited about science? This neat site is based on the PBS show, Design Squad, but you can easily incorporate the activities and clips from the site without watching the show. There is a full educators guide available (see the Teachers link) with ten engineering and inventive activities. The site also includes video clips, building activities, and interactive (educational) "games." Some of the building activities include "Watercraft," "Hidden Alarm," "Dance Pad Mania," and others. This show also features "real life" challenges that students (or classes) are able to get involved with. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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In the Classroom:
The possibilities at this site are "inventive." Visit the games site to learn about sound and play an interactive "string thing." Have students work in cooperative learning groups to recreate the building activities. Share the video clips (or interactives) on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Have your class complete one of the "real life" challenges together. If you can't do it during the competition months, go back and try one of the past competitions. Document it on a class wiki, then invite next year’s class to do it even better by learning from “experience.” Before you know it, kids will walk in the first day of school and ask when they get to try the challenge.

Digital Vaults - National Archives

Grades 3 to 12

This site offers digitized National Archives of the U.S. organized according to general category. You can finally explore and share primary source documents interactively through this Flash site. Start from eight featured topics. For a more in depth look at each subject and its associated categories, click on What's Interesting. A search feature is also available. An added feature at the bottom of the opening page is the "Pathways" tab. Students can participate in a "challenge" (in different levels) to find links between certain historical items. Students can also create their own pathways, writing about connections they find between certain archived items. In another section, students can create their own historical posters and movies from the archives. You can create a collection of items from the archives to retrieve or look at later, as well. This feature requires a free membership created by email address. There are also extensive lesson ideas and information for teachers at the small link, "Educators and Students," at the bottom of the page. Roll your mouse down to find it against the dark background. Note: the entire site is done in Flash (an HTML version is available from a small link at the bottom of the page). Get Flash from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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In the Classroom:
Use this site as an anticipatory set for a unit in history or on inventions. Share a collection of images or invention drawings on a projector or whiteboard and ask what the invention will do. Or use the site as the starting point for individual or group projects. After demonstrating on an interactive whiteboard or projector, have students use laptops or lab computers to "collect" resources related to their assigned inventor, decade, or era in American history. Check your school policy regarding accessing student email. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Students can use their log-ins to collect resources.

Since the documents are in the public domain (are not copyrighted), students may also download and use the files as part of other projects, such as video compilations, Powerpoint presentations, or multimedia of any sort. To access the resources in non-Flash format, click the small link to "research this record in ARC" in the detailed view of the item. You can then view and Save As for use elsewhere. Be sure you teach students about copying the URL and relevant information from this ARC page to cite the source and give credit in any presentation they make. This site is excellent for enrichment or projects for the gifted, as well. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class for students who are working in History Day projects or other assignments for your class.

Doodles, Drafts, and Designs - National Museum of American History

Grades 8 to 12

This site is for the curious student who wants to investigate how some of America's most enduring inventions from the 19th and 20th centuries came to be. Browse through pencil-and-ink industrial drawings of shopping carts, Crayola crayons, T-shirts, and more. A useful resource for gaining insight into American culture and the creative process.
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In the Classroom:
Use the images on this site to compliment a lecture on the inventions of the 20th century. While the test is interesting, it might be a little much for a class for of lower-level readers. Include the images as a way to capture the simplicity of original designs, and compare the initial plans of these inventions to the mega-products they are today. The images are interesting, particularly the Crayola tests, and will capture kids attention as they are inventions that have impacted their own lives in a big way.

Eastman House –International Museum of Photography and Film -

Grades 6 to 12

This site highlights the offerings of the George Eastman House by providing information on each of the museum’s resident and traveling exhibits, as well as information about George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak company, and his historic estate in Rochester, NY. There are even 360 degree cameras for viewing the rooms and gardens of the estate. The Education and Research section has video demonstrations of historical photographic processes, and each of the exhibit explanations provide useful information on the history of photography.
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Educators’ Flight Plan - Centennial of Flight Commission

Grades 6 to 12

A site from the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission which includes posters and bookmarks to download, a Wright Brothers' themed word search puzzle, an aviation "Fact of the Day" from the Library of Congress, and a link to an online weather forecasting program that helps students understand the importance of weather to the Wright Brothers and their attempts to fly, as well as the attempts by modern day researchers who hope to recreate the Wright Brothers’ flight on the anniversary. There is an Educational Resources Matrix with links to 57 organizations which provide further information that might be helpful to educators, an interactive timeline, and a link to Robert B. Elliott’s "Toothpick Airforce" instructions for building replicas of the Wright flyers.
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Electricity Timeline - British Energy

Grades 4 to 10

This site provides a good introduction to the history and inventions/discoveries involving energy. There is also a text version (you can click near the top of the screen to use the text). This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
8504

In the Classroom:
This website is ideal for an interactive whiteboard, but would also work well as a scavenger hunt or research source for cooperative learning groups or students working on individual computers. Couple this with an activity on electrical circuits and one on energy conservation for a "round robin" of electricity activities.

Great Minds of the Century - TeachersFirst

Grades 4 to 8

Use this unit to let students explore a great thinker or inventor of the past century. Students pick a personality, research him or her, then give a portrayal about the person's accomplishments.
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Great Minds of the Millennium - TeachersFirst

Grades 4 to 8

Use this unit to let students explore a great thinker or inventor of the past thousand years. Students pick a personality, research him or her, then give a portrayal about the person's accomplishments.
178

How Products are Made - Advameg, Incorporated

Grades 5 to 12

Got a curious student? Need a motivator to connect to science lessons? Trying to find real world applications of scientific principles? This site supplies volumes (literally seven volumes) of products and how they are made. Just click on the volume number and each list is alphabetized for your students' perusal. Don't just read the short excerpt about the product. Click on the product name to read full details on product purchasing, its history, and much more. Below the "Volumes" section is another section of inventors and their biographies.
8557

In the Classroom:
When it is 'science report' time, direct your students to this site, loaded with hundreds of possibilities. Better yet, as you teach science principles, first share how something works that uses the same principle (on a projector or whiteboard). Then challenge students to find other REAL applications of the principle and create a class wiki glossary of concepts with example links. Model this the first few times, then assign them to work in groups. Since this site permits reader contributions at the end of entries, you may opt to find a product that needs more research and allow your students to add content information to the site (with your approval, of course). Every science teacher, gifted teacher, or tech ed teacher will want to share this site on your teacher web page.

Howtoons -

Grades 4 to 9

These "Tools of Mass Construction," created by two graduate students at MIT, encourage students to discover, problem-solve, use their creativity, and invent! The one-page cartoons, downloadable as PDF files, cover such topics as "Marshmallow Shooters," "CD Hovercraft for tabletop hockey," and "Soda Bottle Safety Goggles." While these diagrams and instructions are fairly straightforward, teacher or parent supervision and advice is necessary. Consider using these "Howtoons" in a small-group, "science fair" environment. As an enrichment activity, challenge your students to develop their own "Howtoons." Videos and science project links are provided.
4993

Inventing Entertainment - the Edison Recordings - Library of Congress

Grades 6 to 12

Much of the content in this Library of Congress site about Thomas Edison and his phonographs is beyond the scope of middle schoolers. However, there are sound recordings from the original machines that let students listen to the product of Edison's work, and the basic biographical information will be useful for those studying inventors. Explore this one in some depth; there's a lot here.
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Invention of the Aerial Age - Smithsonian

Grades 6 to 12

The Smithsonian's homage to the Wright brothers is still incomplete, but there's plenty to see already, and the illustrations and photos go well beyond what can be found elsewhere. Users will find a chronology that links to other content describing the challenges and solutions the brothers developed along the way. Definitiely worth a visit.
4763

Inventor of the Week - MIT Lemelson Center

Grades 6 to 12

The Lemelson Center at MIT offers a weekly profile of an inventor - some famous, many less so. If you're doing a unit on scientists, creativity, or economic/industrial growth, this site can help students understand how many advances are the result of small, incremental improvements rather than revolutionary breakthroughs.
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