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An inventor is someone who comes up with ways to solve problems or make tasks easier. Watch this videoto learn about some inventors and their inventions.
A woman named Joshephine Cochran invented the dishwasher so she didn’t have to do the dishes. Discuss: Do you have a chore that a machine could help you do?
Choose a chore you want a machine to help you with. Then act it out — pretend to do the chore.
Think about how a machine could help with your chore—or better yet, do the chore for you. Draw a picture of your machine.
When your picture is done, find a partner. Tell your partner what your invention does and how it works.
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Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the activity & exploration you just completed.
- Lesson Assessment
- Activities: Additional hands-on activities
Find the Inventions All Around Us: Ask your students to walk around the classroom and look for inventions. Talk about the inventions they find. Inventions in your classroom may include paper and pencils; tape, pushpins, and crayons; staplers and hole punches; electric lights and the switches that turn them on and off, and so on.
Make an invention box for your classroom. This article from Modern Parents/Messy Kids provides ideas for what to put in the box and some prompts for tasks that the inventions could accomplish.
Invent a Backscratcher: For a hands-on activity, check out this Teach Engineering activity, in which students use simple materials to invent a backscratcher.
