Task

Process

Evaluation

Conclusion

Teacher's Page

Instructional Plan

Individual Roles:

You will work with a partner and view the information about each of the inventions listed here which were invented in the 1800s.  Together, you should agree on which of these inventions had the greatest impact on the future.  Use this guide (adapted from Tom March's Freedom Fighter or Terrorist" web quest worksheet) to help you decide.  With your partner, you will prepare a slideshow using PowerPoint to present to your group to convince them of your choice.

• Which invention do you think deserves the "Impact Tomorrow" Award for communications technology from the 1800s?
• Who invented this invention?
• When was it invented?
• How did it change communication in the 1800s?
• How has this invention affected communication today?
• Why do you believe this invention had the greatest impact on communication today?

Group Process:

Your teacher will put you in teams of eight members each.  In these groups, you will present your slide show presenting your invention choice.  After watching all the slideshows, your group will reach consensus on the overall best choice for your group.  Your group should choose a spokesperson and be prepared to present your group's selection to the entire class.  Be sure your final slide show presentation answers all of the following questions completely:

• Which invention do you think deserves the "Impact Tomorrow" Award for communications technology from the 1800s?
• Who invented this invention?
• When was it invented?
• How did it change communication in the 1800s?
• How has this invention affected communication today?
• Why do you believe this invention had the greatest impact on communication today?

Class Process:

After all groups have reached consensus, the class shall be convened by the teacher to begin hearing group presentations.  After each group presents, the class members will be given the opportunity to question and challenge each groups presentation of facts.  When all the groups have presented, the class will be challenged to reach a consensus on the overall best answer to the essential question:  "What invention has had the greatest impact on communications today?"

After the class has reached a consensus, the class will prepare media-release statements and public relation pamphlets for the "Impact Tomorrow Foundation" reporting this invention as the winner of the "Impact Tomorrow" Award.

Invention--Sources for Research:

| camera | kinetoscope | stereoscope | telephone | phonograph | typewriter | analytical engine | telegraph | general |

Camera (photography)

Pictures from the Civil War
Photography in the 1800s
History of Photography
Cameras before the 1900s
Kodak
Panoramic Photography
Photography and Cameras
Photography and the Mentor
A Gallery

Kinetoscope

Origins of motion pictures
Inventing Entertainment
Motion Pictures Go to War
The Big Sneeze
A  Sneeze Caught on Film
An Early Film
An Early History of Motion Picture
Put ‘Em Up, Sister
The Vitascope

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Stereoscope

About Stereoviews
Stereoscopes
Stereoscope Treasures

Telephone

The Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell
Telephone industries
Telephone Operators
The Bell is Ringing
Hello, Is the Sun Shining?
Who is Credited With Inventing the Telephone?
The Telephone

Phonograph

An Interview with Thomas Edison
History of the phonograph
The Gramophone
Lee Deforest's Radio
Recording Sound
When Things Don’t Work
Edison’s Favorite Invention
The Wizard of Menlo Park
Inventing Entertainment

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Typewriter

A History of the Typewriter
The QWERTY Connection (article by a collector)

Analytical Engine

The Engine and Babbage
Charles Babbage
Babbage (image from the American Memory Collection)
Punched Card

Telegraph

Samuel Morse's Telegraph
The Invention of the Telegraph
Telegraph Industries
Horses Are Out of Work
Dot, Dot, Dash, Dot, Dash

General

After the 1800s
Predictions from 1900
The Changing Office

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