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Lesson Plan
Inventing and Presenting Unit 1: Analyzing Nonfiction and Inventing Solutions
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| Grades | 6 – 8 |
| Lesson Plan Type | Unit |
| Estimated Time | Eight 45-minute sessions |
| Lesson Author |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Jeannette, Pennsylvania
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OVERVIEW
This lesson is part of a larger interdisciplinary unit combining experimentation and the scientific method, critical thinking, clear writing, and effective speaking. In this lesson, students research inventors and inventions and present their research to the class. They brainstorm problems that need solutions and begin to design their own invention to solve one of those problems.
FEATURED RESOURCES
Exploring Innovation: Using this online tool, students explore American inventions beginning with those of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Young adolescents thrive in active learning situations, and they work best when they are engaged in their topic and are able to connect their learning to their own lives. These connections can more easily be made in interdisciplinary units that accommodate multiple learning styles and multiple ability levels. When students produce something that they value and for which there is a real audience, the learning and assessment are authentic. In their article describing an team-taught interdisciplinary science class that heavily integrated writing, Gardner and Southerland state "One of the most significant means for helping students to see this interconnectedness [among science disciplines], they reported, came from their writing experiences..." As one student in their class noted “Writing helped concretize what I knew." (35) This lesson, part of an interdisciplinary unit integrating language arts and science, provides students with chances to use writing and presenting to "concretize" their scientific thinking.
Further Reading
Gardner, Susan A. and Sherry A. Southerland. "Interdisciplinary Teaching? It Only Takes Talent, Time, and Treasure." English Journal 86.7 (November 1997): 30-36.
National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards: Observe, Interact, Change, Learn. National Academy Press.
National Middle School Association. 1995. This We Believe: Developmentally Responsive Middle Level Schools. Westerville, OH: NMSA.
