Inventors Investigation & Young Inventors Competition

Last month to coincide with the Young Inventors Competition, I decided to explore inventors and inventions as part of a unit of work in science.

First,  we brainstormed and discussed as many inventors and inventions we could think of.

I then cut up the names of some famous inventors and placed them into a hat.  The children then chose an inventors name from the hat and carried out an investigation.  I gave this worksheet to each child as a guide to help them: Inventor Investigation

The children then used the iPads to complete the investigation and created a Comic Life Strip for their chosen inventor.  The children then shared their information and their comic strip with their partners.  We then carried out a group discussion on some of the most interesting facts we found out.

We then discussed and ranked the importance of the following inventions in everyday life:

• Steve Jobs - Apple
• Thomas Edison - The Lightbulb
• Stephanie Kwolek - Bullet Proof Vest
• Alexander Graham Bell - The Telephone
• Sir Tim Berners Lee - The Internet
• Grace Murray Hopper - Coding
• Louis Pasteur - Vaccines & Pasteurisation
• Nikola Tesla - Using Electricity Safely

It turned out to be an interesting debate!

Finally the children were challenged to design and create a blueprint for their own inventions.  This was a lovely activity to finish up the unit.
I encouraged the children to think of a problem and try and come up with an imaginative solution to solve it.
Here are some examples of what the children created.   We're looking forward to seeing whether we have any success in the competition!

Maybe we have an inventor of the future in 6th Class! :)



Yvonne