Unit Plan: 5

Advances in Technology

Lesson Plan for Friday
Grade: 4th
Social Studies Strand: History
Submitted By: Janis Gomme-Campbell

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science
Nevada State College Spring 2014
Instructor: Karen Powell





Lesson Plan for Friday Strand: History submitted by: Janis Gomme-Campbell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2
B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:
SW become familiar with 1880s technology. SW complete worksheet about Nevada history and technology.
C. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 4th grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: 50 min
Groupings: individual, group
D. Materials:
Pintrest website: http://www.pinterest.com/nvlynnae/nevada-history/
Houghton Mifflin text, pages 208-209.
text: Henry Ford: Young Man With Ideas, by: Aird, Haxel
Early inventions hand-out
pencil

E. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
H3.4.4 Explain how advances in technology impacted Nevada.
o Student-Friendly Standards
H3.4.4 I can explain how advances in technology impacted Nevada.
F. Vocabulary
tributary- a tax paid by one state to another.
assembly line- An arrangement of workers, machines, and equipment in which the product being assembled passes
consecutively from operation to operation until completed.
supply- to furnish, stock or store.
G. Procedure:
1. TW show students Pintrest website and click on various black-and-white photos of the 1880s, showing Goldhill, NV.
Industrial Revolution, Virginia City, Diamond Springs Pony Express Station, Early steam-train rails, and silver mining. TW
read nomenclature under each photo and field questions.
2. TW lead coral-reading, Houghton Mifflin text, pages 208-209. TW talk further about Ford's invention of the assembly-line.
3. TW present text: Henry Ford: Young man with Ideas and ask about predictions: "What can you tell about the book from
looking at the cover?" "What kind of man do you think Hendry Ford was?" (creative, smart, innovative, answers will
vary).
4. TW distribute "Early Inventions" handout and read about inventions of the 19th century.
Lesson Plan for Friday Strand: History submitted by: Janis Gomme-Campbell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3
H. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
Informal assessment observation and participation.
Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
TW welcome questions from the class.
I. Closure: TW will ask question of the class: "Let's talk again about some of the technology inventions that made life easier at
the turn-of-the-century" SW raise their hands and recount the inventions they learned about while TW write list on the
whiteboard. TW ask students if they can think of any other inventions not mentioned already.














































Lesson Plan for Friday Strand: History submitted by: Janis Gomme-Campbell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4


Early Inventions


Ever wonder how we got all of that cotton to make cotton clothes?
In the early days of cotton harvesting, all the cotton seeds had to be picked out of the cotton balls by hand. This process was
very slow and took many hours to clean out and separate the seeds from just one or two pounds of cotton fiber. The workers
on the cotton farms had to work long and hard to pick out all those seeds. Fields were full of cotton that needed to be
separated, but it took many days and lots of hard work just to harvest and separate a couple pounds of cotton, much less a
whole field of cotton. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin. This machine separated the seeds from the cotton.





The first sewing machine was invented by Alias Howe. Now (mostly) women could make their own clothing
in the comfort of their own homes.



The first automatic dishwasher was invented by a woman named Josephine Cochrane in 1887. This
invention eased laborious wash-board scrubbing.





Lesson Plan for Friday Strand: History submitted by: Janis Gomme-Campbell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 5

Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb in 1879. Alessandro Volta demonstrated a glowing wire in 1800
which led to this invention. Edison was granted a US patent on January 27
th
, 1880 and founded the Edison
Illuminating Company, the place where Henry Ford first became an engineer.


John Deere introduced the first steel plow in 1837, much lighter and effective than the wooden and iron
plows used up until then. These were hand made by farmers and were not exactly invented, as much as
contrived for more effective production of food.

In 1804, the first steam powered train was invented by Richard Trevithick. About 10 years later, George
Stephenson built what is known as the Blucher, the very first train of its kind meant for railway service. In
1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railroad in North East England was the worlds first railway company to
load and transfer passengers and material goods.



Inventions like the light bulb dominate the history books, but we're guessing that anyone facing surgery
would nominate anesthesia as their favorite product of the Industrial Revolution. Before its invention, the fix
for a given ailment was often far worse than the ailment itself. One of the greatest challenges to pulling a
tooth or removing a limb was restraining the patient during the process, and substances like alcohol and
opium did little to improve the experience. Today, of course, we can thank anesthesia for the fact that few
of us have any recollection of painful surgeries at all.


Lesson Plan for Friday Strand: History submitted by: Janis Gomme-Campbell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 6

Unit Plan 5: Reflection Page

1. Where did you get the ideas and materials for this unit plan? Include
website names, URLs, book titles and authors.

Early Inventions hand-out:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/5-industrial-
revolution-inventions.htm#page=10

Text: Henry Ford: Young Man With Ideas. by Hazel Aird.

Pintrest website: http://www.pinterest.com/nvlynnae/nevada-history/
Houghton Mifflin text, pages 208-209.

2. What were the easiest and most challenging parts of writing this unit plan?
It is well known that an assignment that doesn't really interest a person is
always more difficult to complete. So just completing this unit plan was a
struggle.
If there were more time for the lesson, the Historical Museum on Boulder
Highway is a great place for a field trip for kids. It displays a lot of old
household and farming items from the 19th century.

3. What suggestions do you have for yourself for the next time you write unit
plans?
Pick a subject I like better and am interested in more. I didn't feel as if
I could get really creative with this.