PBS
Pbs: Tesla, Master of Lighting
Inventor Nikola Tesla is the subject of this extensive PBS site. In addition to information on Tesla's life and work, the site offers insight into the ways in which society and invention affect each other.
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Who Were Wilbur and Orville?
Classroom activities, interactive experiments, timelines, and other artifacts that celebrate the Wright brothers' first flight.
Other
Kids Page: United States Patent and Trademark Office
This source allows users to learn all about inventions and patents, play some fun games, and enter a contest.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Future Flights!
This lesson is an exciting conclusion to the airplanes unit that encourages young scholars to think creatively. After a review of the concepts learned, students will design their own flying machine based on their knowledge of the forces...
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: William Henry Fox Talbot
The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides this informative page on William Henry Fox Talbot(1800-1877)and the invention of photography. With information and pictures this in a nice resource for study.
Smithsonian Institution
Lemelson Center: Invention at Play
In this mind challenging and creative site, you will learn how play and inventiveness are related. Hear inventors' stories, set your own inventive thinking in motion, and see video commentaries about the nature of play and whether or not...
NASA
Nasa E Clips: Nasa's Launchpad: The Great Boomerang Challenge [Pdf]
Students use the principles of technological and engineering design to research and explain how airfoil shape affects flight characteristics and how it applies to boomerang flight.. They will work in teams to design, build, test, and...
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: Zoom Inventors and Inventions
This site has an alphabetized list of inventions and inventors throughout history. You can also explore by era, topic or nationality.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Farming Planted Seeds for the Internet
What does farming have to do with invention and innovation? Patricia Russac explores how farming was a major innovation leading to the civilization we know today. [3:59]
Smithsonian Institution
Lemelson Center: Percy Spencer: Microwave Inventor
Read about the moment Percy Spencer discovered how microwaves heated objects. This discovery led to the invention of the microwave oven.
South Carolina Educational Television
Know It All Media: Nasa: The Invention Timeline
An interactive timeline of notable inventions and inventors from the 19th century to the present.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Inventing Modern America: Games
Students are challenged to a five-question quiz about when certain objects are invented.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Inventor's Handbook: Patents
This site has everything you would want to know regarding United States patents is included in this handbook for the "Aspiring entrepreneur."
National Geographic
National Geographic: American Genius: Perseverance
Students investigate the importance of failure to the process of innovation by investigating several items that were invented by accident. They share one "failure to success" story by creating a 3-panel comic strip poster, and then write...
Other
Explain That Stuff: Inventors and Inventions
Inventing isn't just about coming up with a great idea; that's the easy part! There's also the matter of turning an idea into a product that sells enough to recoup the cost of putting it on the market. And there's the ever-present...
A&E Television
History.com: Inventions & Science
Inventions from the telephone to the Model T and the computer have defined human history, and inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney and Alexander Graham Bell have transformed our society.
Other
Branksome Hall Asia: Design and Inquiry: Stakeholders in Invention and Innovation
Collaborative generation of knowledge and high efficiency information flow allow for diversity, increased resilience, reliability and stability within an organization. Through participatory research, stakeholders can make full use of the...
Other
Branksome Hall Asia: Design and Inquiry: Invention and Innovation
A comprehensive resource on invention, innovation, and creativity. Explores the field of product design, marketing, innovation strategies, collaboration of stakeholders, product life cycle, and Rogers' elements of innovation. Includes...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Entrepreneurship: Creativity, Innovation, and Invention: How They Differ
This resources teaches students how to distinguish between creativity, innovation, and invention, and to explain the difference between pioneering and incremental innovation, and which processes are best suited to each.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: History of the Steam Engine
From the Engines of Ingenuity web site. A lengthy page discussing ingenuity and invention as it pertains to steam engine history. Very anecdotal and interesting. Includes biographical information and interesting details about Hero of...
Great Idea Finder
The Great Idea Finder: Invention of the Sewing Machine
The history of the sewing machine is found at this site.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: The Telephone
The home page to the PBS feature film on the invention of the telephone. The People and Events section has biographies and commentary on the invention of the telephone and its subsequent success. Be sure to click on Gallery for pictures...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Impacto, Influencia, Cambio
This multimedia resource provides information about science, technology and invention in Latin America.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Martha Speaks: t.d. Reports: Chewing Gum
Take a walk through history with this kid-friendly, multimedia research report on the inventors of chewing gum.