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The Stories of Inventions

Article  in  Science teacher (Normal, Ill.) · January 2017

DOI: 10.2505/4/tst17_084_05_44

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 An interdisciplinary, project-based
unit for U.S. history students

Vanashri Nargund-Joshi and John Bragg

44 The Science Teacher

D
uring the second industrial rev-
F IG UR E 1
olution (1870–1914), scientists
moved away from trial-and- Eras of industrial revolution.
error methods to more systematically ap-
ply the principles of chemistry, physics,
and biology (Mokyr 1998). We chose this
period as the foundation of a project-
based learning (PBL) unit integrated with
the ninth-grade U.S. history curriculum
(Thomas 2000). This project, a collabo-
ration of two university faculty members
(the authors) and a high school social stud-
ies teacher, reflected the integrative learn-
ing promoted by the Next Generation Sci-
ence Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013;
see box, p. 49).
The unit encouraged students to as-
sociate the second industrial revolution’s
many inventions (in such areas as manu-
facturing, transportation, and commu-
nication) with methodical investigation
and professional collaboration rather than
random eureka moments. The goal was to
develop student understandings about the
evolution of different inventions within their families endured gasoline shortages, mass transit shut-
their scientific and societal contexts. The unit culminated downs, and power outages. Reflecting on those hardships,
with students producing and presenting timelines of signifi- students worked in groups of three to list technologies they
cant inventions from the period. considered vital. The groups then convened to share their
This article presents a four-phase approach to implement- lists and concluded that science and technology have always
ing the PBL unit that links scientific innovation to social affected the quality of human life. This led to formulating
context (Larmer and Mergendoller 2015). We launched this the unit’s driving question: “How might inventions rooted
project at a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, in the past influence the present and transform the future?”
and math) academy in Jersey City, New Jersey. The small Answering this question would require drawing on con-
public high school offers all students a college preparatory cepts from both science and social studies. We gave students
program grounded in hands-on, project-based activity. The a timelines rubric (see “On the web”).
PBL unit took place in six two-hour weekly sessions.
Phase two: Applying interdisciplinary concepts
Phase one: Developing questions and planning and tools
inquiries In phase two, starting with a social studies perspective, we
During the first session, students learned that their timeline connected our discussion of basic human needs to ques-
projects would describe and illustrate the evolution of a spe- tions about causation, change, continuity, and historical
cific technology through four waves of industrial revolution periodization—the categorizing of history into discrete blocks
(Figure 1). Students could choose any invention so long as it of time. Historians use periodization to anchor significant
addressed a basic human need. The students would present trends, events, and ideas to their context (Neumann 2011).
their timelines to family and community at an end-of-the- To help students understand this, we asked them to con-
year “innovation showcase.” The prospect of public presen- sider the forms and functions of technologies past, pres-
tation raised the stakes of the project (Larmer and Mergen- ent, and future in an in-class activity (Figure 2). Instructors
doller 2010), which encompassed three aspects of the PBL modeled the activity with an example of changes to lighting
framework: public product, authenticity, and student choice. technologies, including how new science-based lighting tech-
To start their inquiry, we asked students to reflect on in- nologies appeared in the second industrial revolution. Dur-
stances when circumstances denied them the benefits of sci- ing the activity students completed partially blank timelines
ence and technology. These New Jersey students recalled the designed to convey a sequence of important years and events
disruption after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. For several weeks, in the evolution of lighting technology.

Summer 2017 45

FI G U R E 2
In-class activity worksheet.
• To research your timeline, search the web
for key technologies past and present related
to major needs such as heating, lighting,
communication, etc.
• How did the form of inventions change over
time in each major era listed below? (Keep your
answers short; try to use no more than a few
words.)
• Save one image for each period that illustrates
the form and function of the invention from this
period.
What is the function of your invention in the…
pre-industrial era, before circa 1750?
Form:_____________________________________
Function:__________________________________
Possible drawbacks to this design?
_________________________________________
second industrial revolution, circa 1870 to 1914?
Form:_____________________________________
Function: __________________________________
Possible drawbacks to this design?
_________________________________________
digital age, circa 1970 to present?
Form:_____________________________________
Function: __________________________________
Possible drawbacks to this design?
_________________________________________
46 The Science Teacher
We encouraged students to keep an inquiry journal in
which to take notes, gather data, and reflect. Students looked
for patterns and for examples of how knowledge from one
discipline might affect another. For example, Alexander
Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone (patented in 1876)
accelerated the pace of business transactions. After the activ-
ity, students formulated a research question to support their
emerging ideas in line with the driving question.
F IGUR E 3
Notetaking skills for library
research worksheet.
Key terms:
call number: a combination of letters and numbers
giving a book’s location in the stacks.
citation: crediting an idea in your paper to a specific
page in another author’s book, website, or article.
paraphrase: express the meaning of something in
other words for clarity.
Part One: Brainstorming for search terms
What are key search terms related to your invention
or technology? Adjust your search terms as you
encounter new evidence.
Part Two: Notes
In your own words, paraphrase key ideas in your
sources related to your invention in the second
industrial revolution (1850–1939). If a source is not
useful, don’t take notes, set it aside, and move on to
the next source.
1._________________________________________
(Book, article, or web title ____/ Publisher, date
____/ Call # ____ / relevant page[s] ____)
2._______________________________________
(Book, article, or web title ____/ Publisher, date
____/ Call # ____ / relevant page[s] ____)
3.________________________________________
(Book, article, or web title ____/ Publisher, date
____/ Call # ____ / relevant page[s] ____)
Part Three: Bibliography check
Are there any other good sources suggested in the
bibliography (list of sources in the back of the book
or footnotes) or references or works cited section?

FI G U R E 4
Inventions that students researched during the project.
Research question
How can people light and heat their homes efficiently?
How do medicines heal people without toxicity?
How do nation-states defend their mail and cyber security?
How do machines record and display information?
How do communications remain secure?
How do people travel in vehicles at minimal cost?
How do clothes protect while being fashionable?
Next, referring back to their inquiry journals, students
transformed their research questions into thesis statements
(TS). For instance, one group researching medical treat-
ments started with these research questions:
◆◆ How did the function of “healing people” change
throughout different segments of the first three waves
of the pre-industrial and industrial eras (Figure 1)?
◆◆ Did these treatments improve the quality of patients’
lives?
After initial research, the group proposed the following
thesis statement: “As time progressed from the pre-industrial
era to the digital age, increased sophistication in medical in-
ventions made ‘healing people’ more systematic.”
Phase two ended with a whole class discussion on how
to support a TS with evidence gathered in research. By the
end of phase two, each group of students had set a specific
research topic for the remainder of the project.
Phase three: Evaluating sources and using
evidence
Students gathered evidence for their timeline projects dur-
ing a visit to the university library. (A school or public li-
brary can serve the same purpose, but any such research trip
should include planning with library staff. We discovered
that our students lacked access codes for online resources at
the library.)
To prepare students for our visit, we distributed hand-
outs that emphasized the importance of citing specific textual
evidence to support their analysis of sources (Figure 3). A
librarian explained how to use library databases and helped
students target their searches. Students realized that some
sources were more relevant and creditable than others, which
The Stories of Inventions
Anticipated fourth-wave invention
Solar paint
Nanobots
A digital weapons system to attack computer viruses
A 3-D holographic projector
A self-protective smartphone
Hover cars
Wearable technology
helped them work more efficiently during a second library
visit the following week.
The group investigating how medical inventions changed
over time reviewed several articles and books about “curing
sickness” in each era. For the pre-industrial era, the group
initially noted that people relied on “homeopathy and magic
to heal people.” The students had conflated homeopathy
with magic due to their source’s antipathy to that alternative
system of treatment.
In fact, homeopathy first emerged with the research of
Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) as a means to question the
“magical” pharmacological practices of his day, such as the
belief that “the shape and color of a plant could accurately
reveal its general therapeutic properties” (Morrell 2000). We
discussed this discrepancy with the group.
The students then revised their model to focus on the
efficacy and toxicity of 19th-century medicines. The group
found that by the outset of the second industrial revolu-
tion, scientists were devising powerful medicines, many of
which were improperly tested and some highly toxic. The
group discovered that the formation of the Food and Drug
Administration in 1906, during the Progressive Era, led to
more systematic testing of efficacy and toxicity of medicines
and that, by the digital age, more injectable and ingestible
drugs were available. The group imagined that in the fourth
wave, scientists would fabricate microbots to target blood-
borne diseases.
Phase four: Communicating conclusions at the
innovation showcase
During the later weeks of the unit, groups designed
and executed their digital and paper-based timelines,
converting their research notes, worksheets, and im-
ages into visual representations. This included writ-
Summer 2017 47
 ing and revising captions to describe stages of invention.
The groups’ timelines told stories of invention (Figure 4) that
revolved around the driving question: “How might inven-
tions rooted in the past influence the present and transform
in the future?” Students conceptualized a world in which
science, technology, engineering, and society intertwined to
create increasingly sophisticated inventions.
The group working on microbots went through several
revisions consistent with the iterative nature of engineer-
ing design. Students first envisioned next-generation medi-
cal microbots as manually guided “spaceships” that would
circulate through the bloodstream toward pathogen tar-
gets. Then they revised the design to assume the microbots
would be automated and self guided. Finally, students ar-
rived at a design in which the microbots would be delivered
in capsule form.
All the student groups attempted to show increasing so-
phistication in technology and design over time. One group
connected calculations done by counting beads on an abacus
during the pre-industrial era to computers in the digital age

FI G U R E 5

A completed timeline.

48 The Science Teacher

 The Stories of Inventions

Connecting to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013).
Standard
HS-ETS1-3 Engineering Design
Performance Expectation
The chart below makes one set of connections between the instruction outlined in this article and the
NGSS. Other valid connections are likely; however, space restrictions prevent us from listing all possibilities.
The materials/lessons/activities outlined in this article are just one step toward reaching the performance
expectations listed below.
HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs
that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social,
cultural, and environmental impacts.
Dimension Name and NGSS code/citation Specific connections to classroom
activity
Science and Constructing Explanations and Designing Students evaluated data obtained about
Engineering Practice Solutions chosen science inventions in different
• Evaluate a solution to a complex waves of industrial revolution.
real-world problem, based on scientific
knowledge, student-generated sources of Students designed evidence based
evidence, prioritized criteria, and trade- inventions in the fourth wave of
off considerations. industrial revolution.
Disciplinary Core Idea ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions Student groups discussed and analyzed
• When evaluating solutions, it is four waves of industrial revolution and
important to take into account a range identified the transitions in inventions
of constraints, including cost, safety, based on form and function.
reliability, and aesthetics, and to consider
social, cultural, and environmental Students completed timelines of
impacts. inventions through four waves of
industrial revolution and presented the
changes in inventions.

Crosscutting Concept Connections to Engineering, Technology, Students designed a prototype of their

and Applications of Science chosen invention based on research.
• Influence of Science, Engineering, and
Technology on Society and the Natural Students also considered social and
World. cultural context while understanding
• New technologies can have deep design and flaws in the inventions.
impacts on society and the environment,
including some that were not anticipated.
Analysis of costs and benefits is a critical
aspect of decisions about technology.

Connections to Nature of Science (when appropriate):

Science is based on evidence, creativity, and social and cultural context.
The entire unit was based in the four waves of industrial revolution, and students realized how the chosen
inventions got shaped through cultural and social context. Students creatively developed evidence based designs in
the fourth wave of industrial revolution.

Summer 2017 49
The Stories of Inventions
via an intermediate step of typewriters in the second in-
dustrial revolution. During an oral presentation, the group
explained that they viewed the computer as merging the
alphanumeric functions of the typewriter and the abacus,
compounding the efficiency of both.
Some groups tended to emphasize social studies over sci-
ence while interpreting their inventions. One group studied
the relationships among women’s fashion, social standing,
and consumerism. This group thought that contemporary
women’s fashion was too revealing and that the wearable
technology of the future would restore modesty to fashion.
To maintain a science emphasis, teachers may restate their
expectations explicitly at different stages of the project.
Another group, highlighting scientific considerations,
followed transportation technology from the horses and
wagons of the pre-modern era to hover cars in the fourth
wave. As envisioned, the hover cars would be speedy and
efficient, reducing traffic and pollution, addressing several
scientific issues.
At the innovation showcase, presented at an evening
event at the high school, groups had ten minutes each to
present their timelines (example, Figure 5, p. 48) to parents,
teachers, and community members. Students presented
their research in a narrative style, telling the stories of in-
vention, which helped them grasp the content better. Pre-
sentations were well received.
Conclusion
Our interdisciplinary PBL approach allowed students to ex-
perience various science and engineering practices firsthand
50 The Science Teacher
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by planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and
interpreting data, and obtaining, evaluating, and communi-
cating information based on evidence.
Because the entire unit was self-directed, it tapped into
students’ creativity and helped them realize how science is a
human endeavor. In their project evaluations, students men-
tioned that research in the university library helped them
“sketch designs” to reveal “how things changed from past to
present.” Overall, our project was a success because of stu-
dents’ enthusiasm, creativity, and excitement about learning
through teamwork. ■
Vanashri Nargund-Joshi (vnargund@njcu.edu) is an assistant pro-
fessor of elementary and secondary education and biology, and
John Bragg is an associate professor of history and elementary
and secondary education at New Jersey City University in Jersey
City, New Jersey.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr. John Emolo, a teacher at Jersey City Public
Schools, and Shantal Henry, undergraduate design student at
NJCU, for their contributions to the project.
On the web
Timeline rubric: www.nsta.org/highschool/connections.aspx
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