Explore the lives of 30 famous inventors and their inventions. A variety of templates let you determine the length, focus, and format of your research project or writing prompt. Resources are included in a printable PDF and digital Easel Activities or Google Slides.

Open the preview to take a closer look.

This activity is scalable. If you're short on time, you can use less pages. Would you like a full-blown research project? Use them all. (Or you can do something more in the middle.)

• For the simplest activity, assign only the first page (basic information).
• To add complexity, also assign the second page (challenges inventors faced and people who helped).
• For the most thorough assignment, add the third page (how history changed the person’s life, how the person changed history).
• A fourth page lets kids focus on one specific invention. They describe it, explain the problem and inspiration behind it, and more.
• A double timeline also helps kids visualize the cause-effect relationships.

It allows you to differentiate. Meet the needs of each you teach! You can assign the same number of research sheets to every student or vary requirements for differentiation.

You can let kids collaborate (or not.) Fourth, fifth, or sixth grade students may work independently, as partners, or in small groups to complete this informative writing project.

Printed pages make a stunning bulletin board or classroom display.

• For each person, you'll receive a page with a large picture of the person. Kids simply write important contributions at the bottom. When you only use this page, your class can whip up a beautiful display - or collective biography of inventors - in one class period.
• Themed writing paper with a small picture of the person lets kids write. Whether it's a bulleted list or research paper, it also makes a great display.
• For the largest bulletin board - and most wow factor - staple both pages side-by-side on a large piece of construction paper.

It's digital too. Want to go paperless? Let them respond with Easel Activities or editable Google Slides.

Files include everything you need for the project:

• Lesson plans
• List of featured innovators
• 4 sheets of research questions
• Double timeline
• Works cited
• List of transition terms
• 30 contribution pages, each featuring name and large photo
• 30 themed writing pages, each featuring the name and small photo
• Editable rubric

Each student or group explores one inventor:

• John Atanasoff
• Charles Babbage
• John Logie Baird
• John Bardeen
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Karl Benz
• Tim Berners-Lee
• Thomas Edison
• Michael Faraday
• Philo Taylor Farnsworth
• Alexander Fleming
• Henry Ford
• Benjamin Franklin
• John Froelich
• Johannes Gutenberg
• Christiaan Huygens
• Edward Jenner
• Guglielmo Marconi
• Samuel Morse
• Joseph Nicephore Niepce
• Louis Pasteur
• Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
• Thomas Savery
• Nikola Tesla
• Richard Trevithick
• Alan Turing
• Alessandro Volta
• James Watt
• Horace Wells
• Orville Wright

Your students will love this project – and you will too!

• Whether you use it with your STEM or engineering design program, as a social studies project, or to teach research skills, it’s sure to be a hit.
• The pages provide just the right amount of support to keep kids working independently.
• They’ll enjoy learning about famous inventors and their inventions.
• Activities address the intent of your ELA standards. For example, if you teach CCSS W.4.7, W.5.7, or W.6.7, you can rest assured that students will master skills necessary to write short research papers.

Although this activity was created for kids in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the format has worked well for students in middle and high school as well.

Enjoy teaching!

Brenda Kovich