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The
Inventor in You
| Subject: | Work |
| Curriculum Area: | Writing and illustrating |
| Instructional Objective: | To encourage students to apply their talents, abilities, and acquired knowledge to solving today's needs and anticipated future needs. |
| Materials: | Pencils, paper, worksheet and the following articles in Black Inventors of America by Burt McKinley, Jr., "Creators of Industry and Jobs," pp. 57-58, and "The Patent Process," p. 140. |
| Motivation: | The teacher will read information on Jan Metzeliger and the patent process. The students will discuss the value of Matzeliger's contribution and the procedure he used to market his invention. |
| Activity: | Creating an invention and preparing a patent |
Procedure:
1. To the student: Think about an invention that could improve the quality of people's lives or make work easier.
2. Answer the following questions:
(a) What is your invention?
(b) How will it benefit people?
3. Prepare a patent; thoroughly describe your invention. Make sure to include all of its parts and exactly how it works.
4. Draw your invention, providing as many details as possible.
5. Students will submit patents along with drawings to a committee made up of their classmates for approval. Accepted patents will be issued numbers.
6. As an optional step, hold follow-up or culminating activities to honor African American inventors such as the following:
(a) Develop an exhibition on inventions; include some of your own ideas.
(b) Do a mural on inventors and their inventions.
(c) Make your own inventors' video.
(d) Create postage stamps showing Black inventors.
(e) Experiment with rewriting an historic event and highlight an invention that occurred at that time.
Shirley Harris