Format
1. Complete pre program activity with students regarding invention.
2. Invite Park Ranger into classroom and have a quick discussion on Springfield Armory.
3. Ranger will go through the Patent Exploration with the students.
4. Students will have the opportunity to design their bridge patent.
5. Optional: students can build and test their bridge.
Objectives
1. Explain and identify what a patent is and why they are important.
2. Design and develop their own patent, and then create their patented bridge.
Standards Alignment
State Standards
Massachusetts Standards
High School (9-12) United States History,
Topic 3: Economic growth in the North, South, and West
-2: Analyze the effects of industrial growth throughout antebellum America, and in New England, the
growth of the textile and machinery industries and maritime commerce.
Topic 5: Rebuilding the United States: industry and immigration
-1: Explain the various causes of the Industrial Revolution (e.g., the economic impetus provided
by the Civil War; important technological and scientific advances, such as the expansion of
the railroad system; the role of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and inventors such as
Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller,
and Cornelius Vanderbilt).