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Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Engineering the Wright Way

For Students 5th - 8th
Great interactive provides students with an opportunity to use engineering skills to design and test airplane wings based on the methods of the Wright brothers. Step into the workshop and design a set of wings that will fly your glider...
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Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Who Were Wilbur and Orville?

For Students 9th - 10th
Classroom activities, interactive experiments, timelines, and other artifacts that celebrate the Wright brothers' first flight.
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Website
The Henry Ford

Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village: Wright Brothers

For Students 9th - 10th
Biographical information on the Wright Brothers, including their childhoods, the Wright Cycle Shop, the world's first airplane, a chronology, and links to more information.
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Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of the u.s. Safe for Democracy Webisode 11

For Students 9th - 10th
Webisode 11 - Safety for Democracy. The history of the United States is presented in a series of webisodes, within each are a number of segments.Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
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Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Orville & Wilbur Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
Brief biography on Orville and Wilbur Wright. Read how the Wright brothers' work with bikes, kites, and gliders led to human flight.
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Learning Lab: Stories of the Wrights' Flights

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This lesson plan has students read primary materials from the Smithsonian collection written by the Wright brothers, and compare and contrast them to secondary sources, such as newspaper stories from the next day. There is background...
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Unit Plan
Have Fun With History

Have Fun With History: 1900s

For Students 9th - 10th
Module with video and links to related resources on the early 1900s and the progress of a dawn of a new century.
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Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms

For Students 9th - 10th
Features 100 aircraft, airfields, research labs, military installations, battle sites, launch facilities, and other places that tell about people and events that made the U.S. a world leader in aviation. Highlights of this travel...
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Handout
PBS

Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Wilbur and Orville Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
Two self-taught Midwestern brothers broke the barrier of the air, succeeding where others with government grants and engineering degrees had failed, and shaping the course of the twentieth century.
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Unit Plan
Have Fun With History

Have Fun With History: Aviation

For Students 9th - 10th
Module with visual history of aviation in America. Students and teachers can find videos on topics beginning with pioneers in aviation, WWI and WWII, Airships and more. Links to related resources can be found on this site.
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Website
Other

Open University: First Flight: The Wright Brothers

For Students 9th - 10th
A look at what the Wright Brothers accomplished. Includes information on the scientific experiments that they conducted, and the 1903 flyer they built to protect themselves from injury as they both learned how to fly.
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Interactive
Vocabulary University

My vocabulary.com: Wright Brothers

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This has a variety of vocabulary puzzles and activities using 31 vocabulary words pertaining to the Wright Brothers. It also offers an extensive vocabulary word list for aviation and airplanes.
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Website
The Franklin Institute

Franklin Institute: Flights of Inspiration

For Students 9th - 10th
Franklin Institute site showcases the first flight taken by the Wright brothers. Follows the Wright brothers plan to achieve first flight as they used their failures to win them success in aviation.
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Primary
Ibis Communications

Eye Witness to History: The Wright Brothers First Flight 1903

For Students 9th - 10th
Orville Wright's account of his and his brother's first three airplane trial flights.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Invention of the Aerial Age

For Students 9th - 10th
Biographical details about the Ohio-born Wright brothers, who ushered in the aerial age with their invention of the first powered airplane.
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Graphic
Library of Congress

Loc: Timeline of Flight

For Students 9th - 10th
Library of Congress exhibit presents this timeline with photos and images as part of a special commemoration of the centennial of flight.
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Article
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Libraries:taking to the Skies: Wright Brothers, Birth of Aviation

For Students 9th - 10th
An article regarding the Wright brother's history of flight. Includes pictures and further reading material.
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Article
Famous Scientists

Famous Scientists: Wilbur and Orville Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the Dayton, Ohio brothers who are credited with inventing and flying the world's first successful airplane.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: You Are There, First Flight

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students learn about archives and primary sources as they research original historical documents. While preparing an imaginative first-person account as if witnessing an historical event, they learn to appreciate the value of the...
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Professional Doc
Scholastic

Scholastic Instructor: 100 Years of Flight

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learn more about the first "100 Years of Flight" when you explore this article. It features resources, historical background knowledge and more.
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Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers

For Students 9th - 10th
Over 49,000 digitized primary documents having to do with the Wright brothers and their work with flight. A timeline of the brothers' work, a family tree, and other special presentations are offered.
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Handout
National Inventors Hall of Fame

National Inventors Hall of Fame: Orville Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
This site honors Orville Wright for his invention, in collaboration with his brother Wilbur, of the airplane. Content includes a brief biography of the inventor, as well as look at how his invention has impacted our society.
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Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The First Flyers [Pdf]

For Teachers 1st - 3rd Standards
"The First Flyers" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about the Wright brothers and their obsession with flying. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes: determining main...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: The Flying Machine

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text passage gives a brief history of the airplane and ideas that came before the invention. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills...