QUICK SHOPPING
Story of Inventions 2ed
| Item #: | 008682 |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | 9781932971200 |
| Grades: | 6 |
Publisher Description:
The Story of Inventions presents major inventions from the past 400 years that have had an impact on the growth of our modern industrialized world. Written in an easy-to-read format, these true-life stories will reveal not only how the inventions came to be, but also the history behind their inventors and the character traits that contributed to their success.
The text is divided into four sections: Power, Manufacturing & Production, Communications, and Transportation. Inventions range from the sewing machine, cotton gin, radio, television, submarine, computer, and more; inventors include Edison, Fermi, Ford, Gutenberg, Morse, Tesla, Fulton, and others. Comprehension questions are included at the end of each chapter.
How is daily life today different than it was 50, 100, or 500 years ago? Much of the difference centers around inventions that have enabled each one of us to do more, for less cost, than our ancestors would have dreamed possible. The Story of Inventions tells how we got from there to here. Covering both inventor and invention, this book describes the importance of major innovations that we now take for granted. Learn about the invention of steam and electric engines, steel, reaper, cotton gin, sewing machine, printing press, telegraph and telephone, television, computer and submarine. Captivating reading for any aspiring engineer. Revised, 2nd edition.
Materials that cover scientific developments through history, famous scientists, inventors and inventions.
However, I have been quite disappointed with it. In my opinion, this is not written for a sixth grade level, and not particularly well-written in general. I feel the level of inference and abstract thinking required to dig out the answers to the comprehension questions is above a sixth grade level. Even working backwards from the answer key, I had to really dig to come up with the answers they had, and I have a college degree with a minor in English! My son has been struggling with this curriculum and he is a bright student, one who is routinely testing at an 8th grade reading level.
Examples touching on the quality of the writing, often similar inventions or inventions that build on each other are discussed, but it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other and the questions expect the student to do so. For instance, chapter 12 covers the signal telegraph, the electric telegraph, the registering electromagnetic telegraph, Wheatstone's electric telegraph, and Morse's electric telegraph. The questions then ask what device did Gauss & Weber invent? The answer is the electric-needle telegraph, which is not even noted as a separate invention in the chapter. There is simply the passing reference in the section labeled Registering Electromagnetic Telegraph that "In 1833, Gauss & Weber, two noted German Scientists, put up an electric-needle telegraph line that was about a mile long."
Then once it gets around to talking about the Registering Electromagnetic Telegraph, it does not tell the student what the word "registering" means. Because I have an adult vocabulary and know what the word means, I was able to connect it to the rather convoluted description of this tweak to the invention being able to make dots on paper.
In short, while the subject matter is interesting and I applaud the author for choosing to create a resource that would be interesting to a child with a scientific bent, I feel the material is not well-written, nor is it written at a sixth-grade level.
- Was this review helpful? Yes (6) No (0)
- Flag as Inappropriate
- Was this review helpful? Yes (6) No (0)
- Flag as Inappropriate
