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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Technology: Rating Inventions

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders brainstorm a list of inventions used daily. They use Kidspiration to create a web with inventions in the middle. Students choose three inventions from the web and rank them according to interest.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Talking About Telephones

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Students dispute a telephone bill in a role play activity using a prepared dialogue. They create a dialogue between a customer and a telephone company representative from a prepared scenario. They read and respond to a problem about a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Knowing the Phone in an Emergency

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders brainstorm emergency situations. They watch a demonstration of finding emergency numbers in the phone book. They compile a list of specific items they should tell the 911 operator. They demonstrate how to talk to emergency...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Know the Phone in an Emergency

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders brainstorm emergency situations. They watch a demonstration of finding emergency numbers in the phone book. They compile a list of specific items to communicate to a 911 operator. They demonstrate calling emergency personnel.
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Handout
US Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Line Installers and Repairers

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides information about line istallers and repairers. Topics covered include working conditions, training, job outlook, earnings, and related careers.
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Website
University of Virginia

University of Virginia: Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone

For Students 9th - 10th
A detailed survey of the invention and evolution of the telephone. This scholarly article includes a Master Map that shows Bell's thought processes as he developed the telephone, with each step linked to more in-depth information. The...
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Website
Other

Federal Communications Commission: About the Fcc

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the FCC provides an in-depth look at the Federal Communications Commission and the job it performs.
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Handout
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Joseph Henry Lays Groundwork for the Telephone

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the man who most encouraged Bell to invent the telephone. Bell said, "But for Henry, I never would have gone ahead with the telephone." This is a fascinating account both of Bell's invention and of Henry's life. Half a biography,...
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Handout
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Education: Spotlight Biography Inventors

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides information on American inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Singer, Wilbur Wright, Thomas Alva Edison, Elias Howe, and Alexander Graham Bell. It offers pictures from and...
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Handout
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: More About Bell

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of the larger site about Alexander Graham Bell from the series, American Experience, this biography focuses mainly on his education and experimentation which resulted in his development of the telephone. Included is information...
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Website
National Museum of Science and Industry (UK)

Ingenious: Do We Need the Telephone?

For Students 9th - 10th
The telephone has been a marvelous technological invention. Its successes, failures, and consequences are looked at in this website.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

Lemelson Center: Thomas Edison's Inventive Life

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is a complete resource for learning about Edison's life, his inventions, and electricity. If you like experimenting, there are instructions included for how to make your own light bulb. Good photos.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: String Telephones

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate how sound travels through string and air. First, they analyze the sound waves with a paper cup attached to a string. Then, they combine the string and cup with a partner to model a string telephone. Finally, they are...
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Website
Other

Lemelson Center's Invention at Play: Alexander Graham Bell

For Students 9th - 10th
A summary of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone invention.
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Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers

For Students 9th - 10th
All the primary source documents of the Graham Bell Family can be found at this Library of Congress site. An exhaustive site that is interesting to peruse.
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Activity
Other

Centervention: Body Language Activities Using Telephone Game

For Students 2nd - 5th Standards
In this activity, students will play the game of "Telephone" in two different ways. Students will first play "Telephone" with the traditional version of the the game and then only communicate via their body language.
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Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Primary Source Set: Telephone Invention

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This collection uses primary sources to explore the invention of the telephone.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Alexander Graham Bell: Scientist, Inventor, and Teacher

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Using a short video and two primary sources, students will learn about Bell's inventions and his work with the deaf community.
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Website
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Alexander Graham Bell

For Students 9th - 10th
This biography is a great resource for information on Alexander Graham Bell. Includes links for additional information also.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: What in the World Is That?

For Students 3rd - 8th
Can you match the picture to the correct invention? Read about these inventions and the importance of them. Also included are related sites to find further information about each invention.
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Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Alexander Graham Bell

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting description of the career of the man who invented the telephone. Learn more of his adventurous life as you read. (In Spanish)
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Article
Amby Duncan-Carr

Amby: Telephone Communications

For Students 9th - 10th
Do you need to make a professional phone call? Before you pick up the phone, explore these telephone skills that allow you to communicate like a pro.
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Primary
Other

American Poems: Rotary

For Students 9th - 10th
This fifteen-stanza poem shares a meditation on the old rotary phone.
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Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: Poetry 180: The Cord

For Students 9th - 10th
The one-stanza poem compares the reach of a phone cord to the long reach of her mother.