Inventions and Discoveries (LS-HR-209)

In this learning scenario created by Tomislav Pavlović, pupils (aged 11 to 14) need to do research on the topic of inventions and discoveries. This is an interdisciplinary scenario involving IT, Entrepreneurship and English as a second language.

Inventions in Human History

In teams, students debate the most important inventions in human history, using Padlet to share their ideas. Students search on Europeana Collections for inventors and great minds who contributed significantly with their inventions. They also use Learningapps to play a quiz related to this topic.

Students create presentations about chosen inventors in teams and present their work to other teams. To be able to create presentations teams need to collaborate and contribute to their team.

Peers assess their presentation using the presentation assessment rubric. Students from other groups can ask questions and reflect on their work using the group self-evaluation sheet.

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

LS-HR-209-Inventions-and-discoveries-Tomislav Pavlović-docx Download

LS-HR-209-Inventions-and-discoveries-Tomislav Pavlović-pdf Download

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CC BY-SA 3.0 – The featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and provided by the Arts Council Norway.

14 Responses to "Inventions and Discoveries (LS-HR-209)"

Stephanie Maggi-Pulis, Malta, says:

November 19, 2019 at 3:40 pm

An interesting LS in which there is a lot of flexibility depending on the students’ interests and open questions. This makes for students to reflect and seek a common invention on which to investigate. I think that the awareness on the self-assessment task for their group at the end enables students to do their best to contribute effectively and be aware right from the start on the type of behaviour/input that is expected on their part. Well done and thanks for sharing dear Tomislav.

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mateidan says:

January 6, 2020 at 6:59 pm

This lesson is excellent! Involving students in the most important inventions in human history, using Padlet to share their ideas is a very good idea. Well done, Tomislav!

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ivanabusuttil says:

January 7, 2020 at 11:29 pm

This lesson is excellent! The implementation of ICT, communication and sharing of ideas mirror the best practices for empowering 21st century skills! Well done, the children were surely motivated into participating.

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josemariad says:

January 12, 2020 at 8:13 pm

Dear Tomislav Pavlović,

As a Technology teacher, I loved your lesson plan! It is perfectly in tune with my possibilities and I will carry it out this week with my students. Congratulations on this rich combination of skill development within the activity!

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ellarakovacbekes says:

January 12, 2020 at 8:47 pm

Your learning scenario is very interesting, engaging and provided with great formative assessment. I like the one where students need to selfevaluate their contribution to group work. Also you have used a fair share of ICT tools which were meaningfully targeted. Although, maybe as an addition, the title “Inventions and Discoveries” seeks a little bit of math or physics implementation aligned with curriculum and adjusted to children age. But overall it is a great scenario to work with, and varieaty of subjects can used it and adapt it or upgrade it.

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mijandrusicladavackristina says:

January 14, 2020 at 10:42 pm

It is simple and effective, suitable for younger students. It also allows adding activities and broadening the lesson into two or more lessons.

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ayrtoncurmi says:

January 23, 2020 at 9:08 am

Very interesting learning scenario. I really like how you implemented an interdisciplinary approach involving IT, Entrepreneurship and English. Digital resources such as Padlet, Europeana Collections and Learningapps , definitely engaged your students in their learning. Thank you for sharing and well done!

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ninapekic says:

January 29, 2020 at 6:53 pm

Seems like an excellent learning scenario, I look forward to implementing it in my class. I especially appreciate the clear assessment rubric as evaluating groupwork can often pose a challenge.

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OliveraIlic says:

April 30, 2020 at 7:19 am

Dear Tomislav,
Such a great multidisciplinary lesson topic, as it combines science, IT, history and English. It’s easy to see how it stimulats students’ engagement, motivation and collaboration. I love the learningapps and padlet activities, as these two tools are among my favourite tools to use for language teaching. Perhaps it would be a good idea for students to upload the presentations onto the padlet, and then write down the comments and opinions on other students’ presentations. I also love the 3 levels of assessment you have created – the presentation assessment, group self-evaluation and self-assessment. They are very detailed and they assess very aspect of student’s work during the project. Great job!
Olivera

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marcinjablonski says:

April 30, 2020 at 10:31 am

Hi,
Very interesting LS. I really like how we can combine IT, Entrepreneurship and English. Digital resources such as Europeana Collections are very important for young people! Thank you for sharing !!!

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sophiakouzouli says:

April 7, 2021 at 7:25 pm

The learning scenario “Inventions and Discoveries” created by Tomislav Pavlović provides the students with the opportunity to explore personalities whose actions have had a great impact on the life of people and have changed the world. I decided to use it with my 6th graders as students are motivated to reflect on important inventions in history, which can arouse their interest in STEM innovation and contribute to the formation of positive attitudes towards science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The initial discussion on padlet about inventions activates prior knowledge and instigates their curiosity and interest in knowledge acquisition and further research. The interactive textual environment facilitates social and cognitive skills and generates a more personal involvement of the students in the learning process.

The activity with learning apps that follows directs the class’s focus of attention on specific personalities and their inventions and brings a playful approach towards learning, which makes students feel at ease while working on an educational and pleasurable activity.

Working on their presentations in groups and researching information about the inventors and their inventions help students develop their cognitive and interpersonal skills, and contribute to the sentiment of ownership towards learning.

The presentation assessment rubric as well as the group self evaluation sheet encourage students to develop a deeper understanding of their work, their learning experience, their performance and their skills.

On the whole, the learning scenario focuses the learners’ attention on creativity and on heroes who have significantly changed our society with their scientific and technological advancements.

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evatothnejonas says:

April 6, 2022 at 11:05 am

Dear Tomislav!

I came across your LS right after visiting an exhibition about Hungarian inventions. I found your scenario well-built and easy to follow. It gave me the the possibility to draw students’ attention to the importance of science. We talked a lot about inventions that we could not live without any more.

Thanks

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dragogradecak says:

April 28, 2022 at 10:19 pm

Thank you for the interesting LS that can be realized in numerous subjects, and I realized it in computer science class. The questions in the Padlet tool are very creative to which the students offered interesting and humorous answers. Here we have expanded the discussion of the invention of the atomic bomb in response to the question “What is the world’s most dangerous invention?” Students highlighted weapons as one of the most dangerous inventions. Considering that many interesting inventions can be carried out by implementing this LS, I would like to point out that it is useful to extend the teaching time to three teaching hours. That one extra teaching hour we watched a film about Nikola Tesla available at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok8JDXSYw1U

LS is very suitable for research and learning about inventors who lived in the state in which this LS is implemented. The students had to describe in a text editing program what they remembered by watching the video (what he invented, are these inventions still used today, do we make enough use of his inventions?). The students saved this document in their e-portfolio. Also, the students searched the Internet for a few minutes about the inventor of the tie (although no mention is made of the individual inventor of the tie). In this part of the teaching process, the teacher stimulated a discussion on the question from the Padlet board “What is the world’s most useless invention?” Some students have concluded that the invention of the tie is not a useless invention, but it is one we could all live without.

Students in teams searched the internet about inventions and made a presentation. It took them approximately 10 minutes for the students to open the presentation on their computer until the end of the presentation. Students used sources from Europeana, but they could also use other Internet portals.

The students solved another short quiz Matching pairs in which the students joined a picture of an inventor with the name of that inventor. Link is here: https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/JrA0uj0s-iQAFQCwyQgAAA/5DEJS5L/match-the-pairs?teacher_id=4795678109728768

Since we conducted a lesson in an IT classroom, we saved on paper, so we did a self-assessment on a computer. Link is here: https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/IaJzdQYQ-iQAF275vggAAA/VDDUKV2/self-assessment?teacher_id=4795678109728768
Student enrollments are available to the teacher via the bookwidgets platform.

Overall, LS offers great opportunities for customization and innovation for the teacher. The students rushed to work with interest. Thank you for this opportunity to conduct this LS.

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Ksenija Rumora says:

May 11, 2022 at 5:26 pm

Thank you very much for sharing! Creative, multidisciplinary, inspirative! Well done!

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Inventions in Human History

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