| The Invention of the Electric Guitar |
| Online exhibit showing how the need for louder guitars led to the invention and proliferation of the electric guitar and how the emergence and popularity of rock and roll led to the guitar’s commercial success and more innovative designs. View the collection of guitars, click on each guitar to learn more, and listen to audio commentary by guitarist G.E. Smith. Listen to recordings of different types of guitars in a section entitled "How Guitars Work.” |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| Smithsonian Source: Invention |
| Section of SmithsonianSource.org intended to supplement the materials you currently use for lessons on American inventions and innovations. Includes a video tracing the development of the electric guitar, DBQs, lesson plans organized by grade level, and primary-source documents from the Smithsonian collections. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): All grades |
|
| Edison After Forty: The Challenge of Success |
| Photo exhibition chronicling the latter half of Edison's life and career. At the age of 40, with major inventions behind him, Thomas Edison faced a new technical world, which he helped create, and the challenge of competing with his own success. While some of his later endeavors were successful, others were spectacular failures. In the end, Edison was unable to adapt to certain changes and could not recapture the monumental success of his early years. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
|
| Edison Invents |
| Online exhibit about Thomas Alva Edison's creative genius. He gave us electric lights in our home; a system to produce and deliver electric power; was the first to record sound and started the recording industry; and he developed the first movie camera and produced the first movies. The exhibit includes a biography of Edison, instructions on how to make a light bulb, an interactive game and a list of recommended resources. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| Invention at Play Educator's Manual |
| Teacher's guide for the online exhibit Invention at Play providing an array of activities, resources, and approaches that underscores the role of play in fostering the inventive spirit. Through play we develop certain "habits of mind" - curiosity, persistence, imagination, communication, problem solving - as well as skills in manipulating and understanding the properties of the material world. This guide provides biographies, activities, articles, and resources which should help you bring the playful nature of invention into your classroom. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| Invention at Play Family Activities Guide |
| PDF connected to the Invention at Play online exhibit highlighting the connections between play and the process of invention. When children pretend, build with blocks and boxes, solve puzzles, take things apart, or rig a new way to do something, they are practicing flexible habits of mind and making important new connections. This downloadable booklet highlights inventors who started out as great players and who recall a strong link between their play and inventing. It encourages the creation of an enriching play/inventing environment at home with hands-on, minds on activities for adults and children to do together. Targets grades K-4. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): PreK–3, 4–8 |
|
| Invention at Play Homepage |
| Online exhibit exploring the playful side of invention and the inventive side of play. Interactive games, inventors' stories, video commentaries, and toy displays show how play connects to the creative impulse that is fundamental to the work of invention. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): All grades |
|
| Invention Playhouse |
| Section of the online exhibit Invention Playhouse where interactive games show how play connects to the creative impulse of both historic and contemporary inventors. |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): All grades |
|
| Samuel P. Langley: Aviation Pioneer |
| Online exhibition presenting the life and work of Samuel P. Langley, third secretary (director) of the Smithsonian. Few know that Langley almost succeeded in building the airplane before the Wright brothers or about the Wrights’ tumultuous history with the Smithsonian. This little- known history is found here along with contextual images and primary documents. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Institution Libraries |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
|
| Taking to the Skies: The Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation |
| Online exhibition with a brief biography of the Wright brothers and the invention of the airplane. Includes images of related objects in the Smithsonian collections and further readings. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Institution Libraries |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|