Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Reading Science: Inventors and Innovators

Here at Lafayette, we have reading down to a science: we're checking out biographies and fiction about inventors and innovators, creating collaborative projects, and sharing book recommendations with classmates.

Who Was Alexander Graham Bell? by Bonnie Bader. Mr. Watson… Come Here… I want to see you! These are the first words Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his newfangled invention. The inventor dreamed of creating a device that could transmit speech electronically: the telephone forever changed the way the world communicates.

Who Were the Wright Brothers? by James Buckley. To dream, to fly, to soar higher! As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved to play with simple machines and mechanical creations. As young men, they worked with bicycles and motors. As adults, the brothers worked together to build and fly the world’s first successful airplane.


Video Celebrating the Wright Brothers' First Flight,
Featuring Ella and Ella as Orville and Wilbur!

Who Is Jane Goodall? by Roberta Edwards. Off to Africa! Young Jane Goodall loved animals and wanted to study them in their natural habitats. At age twenty-six, the British scientist traveled to Africa and began her ground-breaking observation of chimpanzees.


Who Was Jane Goodall? Video Project by Kathyrn, Sydney, and Mia.

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? by Roberta Edwards. Inside the Mind of a Renaissance Man: Leonardo da Vinci was a gifted painter, a talented musician, a devoted scientist, and an inspired inventor—a fascinating man who lived at a fascinating time—Italy during the Renaissance.


Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? Video featuring Lilly and Ryan.

Who Was Ben Franklin? by Dennis B. Fradin. Let’s Go Fly a Kite! Ben Franklin was a man of many talents. An author, a printer, a publisher, and a statesman, he was also an avid scientist and inventor. With the help of a kite, he famously discovered that lightning is electricity. 

Who Was Steve Jobs? by Pam Pollack. The Apple of Our Eye: Steve Jobs, co-founder of the multinational technology company, turned a youthful obsession with computers into a successful business and a fascinating life story.
Who Was Steve Jobs? Interview by Lila, Ella, Sophia, and Zoya.

Who Was Steve Jobs? Poster by Sarah.
Who Was Thomas Alva Edison? by Margaret Frith. A Light-Bulb Moment! One day in 1882, Thomas Edison flipped a switch and illuminated Manhattan with incandescent light— forever changing the way we work and live. Edison produced thousands of inventions, including the phonograph and an early version of the movie camera.

Who Was Marie Curie? by Megan Stine. Nobel Prize Winner: Polish-born Marie Curie partnered with her scientist husband to perform pioneering work in physics and chemistry. Together they discovered two elements and advanced the study of radioactivity.

Who Was Marie Curie? Video Project by Sadie, Josie, and Lily.

Who Was Marie Curie? Diorama Project by Emily E.
Detail of Emily's Who Was Marie Curie? Diorama.
Detail of Emily's Who Was Marie Curie? Diorama.
Back in Time with Thomas Edison by Dan Gutman. Time-Travel Adventure! Thirteen-year-old Robert "Qwerty" Stevens uses the time machine he finds in his back yard to visit Thomas Edison's workshop in 1879. Qwerty helps the famous inventor develop the electric light bulb but needs his sister’s help to return to his own time.

Phineas L. MacGuire… Erupts! by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Science and Friendship: Disaster nearly strikes when fourth-grade science whiz Phineas MacGuire is forced to team up with the new boy in class on a science fair project.  His partner’s quirky personality may jeopardize the assignment, but then Mac decides to do some investigating….
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm. Science Can Change the World… But Can It Go Too Far? Ellie doesn’t like change: she misses fifth grade; she misses her old best friend; she misses her dearly departed goldfish. One day, a strange boy shows up—a bossy boy who looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who has always been obsessed with eternal youth.

The Fourteenth Goldfish Video Project by Ellie, Emily, and Sarah.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Science Fiction Classic: Assisted by three otherworldly women, Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O’Keefe embark on a journey through space and time in search of Meg’s father, a physicist who disappeared while working on a secret government time-travel project.

Without a doubt, inventors and innovators transport us to other times and places. Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur and film producer. A pioneer of the animation industry, he introduced numerous developments in cartoon production:.


Who Was Walt Disney? Video Project by Oliver, Jack, Jackson, and Devon.

Benjamin Franklin once said, Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. No doubt about it, Reading Road Trippers are involved, and we’re learning a lot about invention and innovation!

Where will Reading Road Trip takes us next? 
The experiment continues…. 

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