Invention and Advertisement Lesson
Students Become Inventors and Market the Product with Commercial
Aug 26, 2008
This project allows teachers to creatively integrate social studies and language arts. Students will work independently and in small teams or groups. When students are learning about the American Industrial Revolution in social studies class, they can become inventors themselves.
Students Write Research Paper
After students learn about the Industrial Revolution in social studies class, direct students to choose a famous American inventor. Students need to research a famous person and write a 2-5-page research paper following the proper MLA format. The paper should include an outline and works cited page with three to five sources.
Small Groups Design and Create Invention
Place students in pairs or very small groups. Each small group will create an invention. The invention should be a “cure” or a “fix” to an every day problem. Some examples of inventions are a French fry holder with section for ketchup created out of tag board, a two-sided skillet that allowed the cook to make perfect pancakes or omelets by flipping them seamlessly and sheets with additional material around the pockets so that the sheets would stay put.
The key to a successful student invention is to keep it simple. Try to dissuade students from elaborate plans. Students should first come up with a simple problem and find a simple solution. This solution should be drawn out on paper first. Then, students need to create a prototype of the invention. The materials should be ones that are easily accessible, and ones that they can manipulate. If teachers want parents to help, students should do the majority of the work with a little technical help from the parent.
Market and Advertise Product
After the product is complete, students should survey 100 people about how or when they would use the invention, making sure to track the age and demographics of people surveyed. Once they know who would possibly buy the invention, they need to begin creating a commercial.
For the commercial, students need to create a logo. The logo is a graphic that stands for the product. An example would be the Nike swoosh.
In addition, students need to create a jingle, which is a catchy phrase about their product. Sometimes, jingles use onomatopoeia, like the Alka-Seltzer's jingle "plop, plop, fizz, fizz." It should be something that is brief but memorable.
Last, students need to create a commercial that can be acted out in class or video taped in advance. Give students with a six square story board and have them "draw out" what should happen in their commercial. Then, they need to write a script. Students should organize the needed props and actors. Last, they need to act out the commercial.
Assess the invention and commercial using a rubric. Criteria for the rubric could be creativity, usability completeness, organization, and/or teamwork.
This is a memorable project that teaches and reinforces many language arts and social studies skills. In addition, there is the National Inventors Hall of Fame that students can check out for Camp Invention for grades 1-6 or for other ideas.
