Teacher's Guide for FOOTSTEPS Amazing InventorsJanuary 2005
Teacher Guide prepared by: Hope Harrod, a teacher with the District of Columbia Public Schools. Harrod received a M.Ed. in Education from Boston College.
Objectives:
- To develop an appreciation of the contributions made by African American inventors to the world
- To understand the challenges and obstacles that the inventors faced in order to achieve their goals
- To understand the historical framework in which each of the inventors lived and worked
- To read to understand, practice the comprehension skills compare and contrast, sequence of events, using a text to make judgements and inferences and to draw conclusions, extracting main ideas and individual facts from a text, making text-to-self connections
- To work collaboratively and effectively in learning groups
For "A History of Ingenuity" & "Louis Temple" (pages 2-6) - Discussion: Have students discuss how although African Americans had the talent and vision to create inventions that could greatly effect the lives of others there were many barriers that kept them from being able to be rightly recognized for their work.
Guiding questions: - Who were some of the earliest known African American inventors?
- Explain how the institution of slavery was a barrier to black inventors. (slave owners taking credit for slaves' work, lack of supplies, illiteracy, discriminatory patent laws, inability to independently sell products, etc.)
- Given that patent applications did not include the race of inventors, how do you think Henry Baker was able to compile a list of 400 black inventors? Where could he have looked to find that kind of information? (Students will learn more about this when they read the article "Who's Who in Patents?" on pages 26-28.)
- Activity: Have students work in collaborative groups to write a letter to the U.S. Patent Office on behalf of Lewis Temple requesting a patent for his invention of his harpoon. Make sure to include the reasons why he should be allowed to receive the patent. Also describe the ways in which his invention was better than the standard harpoon.
For "Lightning Made Easy" (pages 8-9) Discussion: Explain to students that when studying history, timelines are used in order to help give a greater understanding of sequence of events. That they are also key in conceptualizing the "big picture." It is important that students understand that the accomplishments do not just happen overnight, that people devote their lives to attempt to reach their goals or to find the answers to their big questions. Making a timeline will give students an opportunity to see how time plays a significant role in the development of history. Activity: Give each student or group of students a long piece of paper (approx. 3 feet). (You can use butcher paper cut into narrow strips or even tape sheets of copy paper together). Instruct students to read the article thoroughly and make note of all of the events in the life of Lewis Latimer that were marked by a date. Students will then create a timeline. Each date on the timeline should include the event or accomplishment along with a brief explanation of its significance. Invite students to include pictures depicting each event and they can also do the math calculations to determine Latimer's age at each of the events of the timeline. Students can also use their social studies textbook to plot other significant events in American History in order to put his life into a greater context.
For "Madam of Invention" (pages 14-15) Discussion: Read the article together and ask students to think about the Madame C. J. Walker's quote "I promoted myself." Ask students what they think it means. Why did she have to promote herself? What were the circumstances that made it difficult for her to be an inventor during the late 1800s and early 1900s? Then instruct students to look at the article and find examples of how Walker promoted herself. Activity: Explain to the students that they are going to create advertisements that C.J. Walker could have used to "promote" her products. Students can create advertisements that will appear in African American newspapers, catalogs for mail order customers, or posters that Walker could take along with her when she traveled door-to-door. Tell students that before beginning to create the advertisement, they must re-read the article carefully so that they can get as much information as possible. Each advertisement must include as much information about the product as possible. Whatever information they don't have (price, mailing address) they can make up. Remind students that in order to complete this task they must think like Madame C. J. Walker and use some of the words that she used to describe her own products, for example "Wonderful Hair Grower" or "The Walker System."
For "Making the Shoe Fit" (pages 17-20) Have students read the article and answer the following comprehension questions: What is the process of lasting and why did it have to be done by hand? Why were shoes so expensive during the late 1800s? Before starting his own work, how did Matzeliger gather research about how to create the lasting machine? How did it help him? How did Matzeliger get money in order to complete his invention? When did Matzeliger receive a patent for the shoe-lasting machine? How did the volume of production of shoes using the lasting machine compare with that of hand lasting? In what year did Matzeliger receive a stamp in his honor? Why do you think he was given a stamp? How did his invention impact the production of shoes?
For "Four Food Greats" (pages 21-23), "Turning Ideas into Reality" (pages 24-25), "A Talent for Temperature Control" (page 31), "Never Stop" (page 32-33), & "Vaporizing Cataracts" (pages 34-36) The above articles are all biographical sketches of Famous Inventors. Students can work in collaborative groups to complete the activity based upon one of the articles. Discussion: Ask students to think of times when they have put all of their effort into a project or assignment. Then ask them to talk about how they felt when they were successful or received a high score. Encourage them to explore those feeling and why they felt them. Activity: Instruct students to think about the inventors that they have been reading about and the amount of effort and time they have put into their work and the feeling that the inventors might have felt when they discovered that their invention actually worked. Explain that they will be writing journal entries from the perspective of an inventor on the day that their invention worked for the first time. Divide the class into groups and give each group an article to read two times. The first time they read the article, they are to read it independently and are only to focus on the information about the inventor and the invention. The second time they read the article, the group should read it together. This time, they should think about the amount of work and struggle that went into creating the invention. They should then make a list of all of the feelings that they would have felt if they were the inventors and why they felt them. Then as a group, they should use their list of feelings to help them "reconstruct the day." Students can use the following questions to help them:
(When answering these questions, they can use the facts from the text to guide them but they will need to create the story.)
What day of the week was it? What was the weather? Where were you? Were you working alone or did you have a helper or assistant? How was the day going? How was the invention coming? Did you know you were close to success, or was it a surprise? Describe the moment when you realized that you were successful. What did you do? What did you say? How do you feel about your accomplishment? Why is what you did important? How will it change your life? How will it impact the lives of others? What will you do tomorrow?
Thematic Study: Here are some questions that can be explored in a number of ways. (whole group, small group, journal writing) What are goals and dreams? What qualities do all of these inventors share? How did these inventors seek to achieve their desired goals in the face of challenges? What are your goals? How do you determine your goals? What qualities do you need in order to succeed in reaching your own goals? What is your plan for achieving your goals?
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