- Student Guide Study Guide material adapted by Cece Daratany The Inventors Magic Key Written and Directed by Don Butler Billie has a science project coming up. She has to invent something and she just can't figure out what to do. Besides, she HATES science. What could she invent? She's just a kid. Suddenly a bumbling wizard appears, following a magic key. It seems this key shows up at just the right moment in history to help inventors in their hour of need. So begins a journey through history, from the invention of the wheel to... well, you'll see. Along the way you'll meet Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison and hear the fascinating stories of the people and events that made some of the world's great leaps forward. And we'll answer the questions What is this key and how do I get one? So, take one part science, one part history, a lot of fun and a drop of mystery. Heat it over the flame of your imagination and "Eureka, you've got it!" The Inventors' Magic Key! 1.
So, whats an invention? An invention is a new way of solving a problem. No one knows who made many of the earliest inventions - like clothes, the lever, the wheel, how to make and keep fire, to name just a few. Most inventors do not get credit for their ideas. Did you know that many inventions have little or nothing to do with science? On the other hand, an understanding of science is often needed to make an invention work, as is an understanding of business. (Most inventors have to make and sell the invention themselves). And it is important to be able to make the invention at a price that people can afford. From About Inventing, by Robert Riley InventorEd, Inc. http://www.inventored.org/k-12/kidsinventing.html Before the Show Do you have a problem doing something? Can you think of a way to make a certain job easier? Does something really bug you? If so, use your imagination to create an invention. Create a magazine advertisement for it. Make sure your ad has a catchy heading, a colorful illustration and detailed information, so that your audience will want to buy it. Here are some ideas: Activities: 1. Working Model: Create an invention that really works. Then demonstrate it for your class. 2. Non-working Model: Maybe you have a great idea but aren t sure how to put your invention together. Draw what it might look like on a sheet of paper. Label all the parts and write an explanation about how it might work. 3. Adaptations: Take a product that has already been invented and improve it. Draw a picture of it to explain it, or, better yet, bring in the new, improved working model. 4. Games/Sports: Make a board game that has never been created before. Be sure to include detailed rules on how the game should be played. Or, create a new sport. Your new sport might be based on one that you already play. 5. Imagine the future: Think about how people might travel, where they might live, or what they might be doing many years from now. Create an invention of the future. Draw a picture of what it might look like and explain what it would do. 2. Adapted from Student Projects: Inventing Is Kid s Stuff District 16 Cooperative Networking Team, Miramichi, N.B. http://cspace.unb.ca/nbco/pigs/invent/write1.html
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, the tenth of 17 children. Though he had little formal schooling he grew up to become not only one of the founding fathers of the United States of America but also a diplomat, civic leader, writer, publisher, printer and inventor. Always interested in scientific studies, he began experimenting with electricity in 1747. To prove that lightning is an electrical phenomenon Franklin performed his now-famous kite experiment in 1752. He later invented the lightning rod and offered what is called the "onefluid" theory to explain the two kinds of electricity, positive and negative. His other inventions include the Franklin stove and bifocals. Though he received a great deal of recognition for his discoveries Franklin did not profit from them, choosing instead to give them to the world. Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Scotland. He moved to Canada in 1870 and then to the United States in 1871, where he opened a school for deaf mutes in Boston. Bell was very interested in helping deaf people communicate. Since he was 18 years old he had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, Bell developed the basic ideas for the telephone. His experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson proved successful on March 10, 1876, when the first complete sentence was transmitted by phone: "Watson, come here; I want you.". He formed Bell Telephone Company the following year. Bell s other inventions include the photophone, the hydrodrome and the wax recording cylinder, which Edison would later use as the basis for the phonograph. Thomas Alva Edison Born in 1847 in Ohio, Thomas Edison went to work at age 12, selling newspapers and snacks on the railroad. While selling papers at railroad stations, he learned to operate a telegraph and during the Civil War he worked as a telegraph operator. After failing to sell his first invention, an electric vote-recording machine, Edison decided to work only on inventing things people would buy. He opened his own laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, where he worked to improve telegraphy and typewriters and invented the carbon transmitter, which made Alexander Graham Bell's telephone practical. In 1876 Edison moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, NJ, where he invented the first phonograph (1877) and the prototype of the incandescent electric light bulb (1879). These and other inventions (he would eventually hold 1,093 patents) led to his being known as the Wizard of Menlo Park. One of his many other inventions was the motion picture projector.
Thinklike an inventor! Many inventors find things that happen in their daily lives that cause them to think of some problem in a new way. The inventor of VELCRO thought of his invention while removing burrs from his pet's fur after walking in the woods. Eli Whitney watched a cat pull feathers through a cage. It caused him to dream up the invention now known as the cotton gin. Other inventions come about when their inventors try to think of uses for things - vulcanized rubber for tires came about that way. Have you heard of "yellow stickies" (PostIt )? They were the result of a "failed" adhesive experiment which was too weak to market, until the chemist figured out that a weak adhesive had good uses too. You can come up with a solution for a problem (or find a problem that fits your solution!) by either "turning a problem around" or selecting two or more things at random and using them to "seed" new ideas. What does "turning a problem around" mean? It means looking at it from a different angle or thinking about it in a new way. Here s two examples: Example 1 - Instead of thinking of shoes protecting your feet from the ground, think of using something to protect the ground from your feet. Example 2 - Instead of thinking about how you can carry kumquats home from a store, think of how they can come to you (either by delivery or growing your own) or if you need kumquats at all. From How Did They Think of That? online article by Mary Bellis, 2004 About, Inc. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimerk_6.htm 3.
Sunshine State Standards LA.B.2.2, LA.C.3.2, SC.C.2.2, SC.H.1.2, SC.H.3.2, SS.A.4.2, SS.A.5.1, VA.A.1.2 Suggested Reading The Amazing Mr. Franklin, or, The Boy Who Read Everything by Ruth Ashby, Peachtree, 2004. Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman's Life, by Candace Fleming, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003. Always Inventing: A Photobiography of Alexander Graham Bell, by Tom Matthews, National Geographic Society, 1999. Thomas Edison: Inventor of the Age of Electricity by Linda Tagliaferro, Lerner Pub., 2003. TIME For Kids: Benjamin Franklin TIME For Kids: Thomas Edison TIME For Kids: Alexander Graham Bell by Editors of TIME For Kids, HarperCollins, 2005 and 2006. Eureka!, by Linda Schmittroth, UXL, 1995. Suggested Websites http://web.mit.edu/invent, www.enchantedlearning.com www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/science.htm www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/wheel.htm www.luminet.net/~wenonah/wizards.htm http://inventors.about.com/ http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/inventors.htm www.worldalmanacforkids.com www.cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/science/inventions http://myhero.com/myhero/ Ben Franklin websites http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/ http://bensguide.gpo.gov/benfranklin/index.html Resources The Wizard of Menlo Park http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/ offsite.htm About Inventing, by Ronald J. Riley InventorEd, Inc., http://www.inventored.org/k-12/kidsinventing.html "Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?", June 27, 2000, http://science.howstuffworks.com/ question410.htm How Did They Think of That? by Mary Bellis, 2004 About, Inc. http://inventors.about.com/library/ inventors/blkidprimerk_6.htm American Memory article, The Life of Thomas A. Edison, http://memory.loc.gov/ ammem/edhtml/edbio.html The Electric Ben Franklin http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/ The Franklin Institute Resources for Science Learning article, Bell's Telephone http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/ WordCentral www.wordcentral.com Our sincere gratitude to Jane M. Mitchell and the DeMatteis Foundation for their sponsorship of the Kravis-on-the-Road performances of The Inventors Magic Key and to The Picower Foundation for their sponsorship of the S*T*A*R Series. Alexander Graham Bell websites http://www.alexandergrahambell.org http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdbell.htm http://bell.uccb.ns.ca/kids/kidsindex.htm Thomas Edison websites http://www.thomasedison.com/ http://www.surfnetkids.com/edison.htm http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/edison.htm For Teachers: Public Television s The American Experience: The Telephone www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/tguide/index.html Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd. West Palm Beach, FL 33401 www.kravis.org/education 4.
Glossary battery - a group of two or more cells connected together to provide electrical current. Sometimes also used to describe a single cell which converts chemical energy to electrical current conductor - usually a metallic substance capable of transmitting electricity with little resistance. The best conductor at normal temperature ranges is silver. The most common conductor is copper. Some recently discovered substances called super conductors actually have zero resistance at extremely low temperatures. current - the flow of electricity, commonly measured in amperes deductive reasoning - reasoning from the general to the particular electricity - a form of energy that is found in nature but that can be artificially produced by rubbing together two unlike things (as glass and silk), by the action of chemicals or by means of a generator experiment - a procedure or operation carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover something, to test a hypothesis, or to serve as an example filament - a wire (as in a light bulb) that is made to glow by the passage of an electric current ground - an object that makes an electrical connection with the earth hypothesis - a proposal intended to explain certain facts or observations inductive reasoning - reasoning from detailed facts to general principles. invention - something invented; especially, an original device or process lightning rod - a metal rod set up on a building or a ship and connected with the earth or water below to decrease the chances of damage from lightning resistance - the characteristic of materials to oppose the flow of electricity in an electric circuit scientific method - the rules and procedures for the pursuit of knowledge involving the finding and stating of a problem, the collection of facts through observation and experiment, and the making and testing of ideas that need to be proven right or wrong theory - a general principle or set of principles that explains facts or events of the natural world
"Can two cans and a string really used The old "two cans and a string" technique (or better yet, "two paper cups and a string") really does work. The key is to make sure that the string is tight between the two cups and this normally means that the distance is limited and the two people have to be connected to each other by a straight line. But as long as the string is tight, it works. It s also a great way to understand how telephones and radio work. To try it, take two large paper cups and punch a tiny hole in the center of the bottom of each with a sewing needle. Take a piece (perhaps 100 feet [30 meters]) of non-stretchable thread or kite string and thread each end through each hole. Knot or tape the string so it cannot go back through the hole when the string is stretched. Now with two people, have each one take one of the cups and spread apart until the string is tight. If one of you talks into one of the cups while the other listens, the second person should be able to hear what they say. Here s why it works. When one person talks into his/her cup, the bottom of the cup vibrates back and forth with the sound waves. Imagine the bottom of the cup moving back and forth very quickly (1,000 times per second or more) with the sound waves of the speaker's voice. The vibrations travel through the string by pulling the string back and forth. Therefore, the bottom of the second cup should start to vibrate back and forth just like the bottom of the first cup is vibrating, producing sound waves. The second person can hear the sound waves and can therefore hear what the first person says. This isn t much different from how a telephone works, except that electric current replaces the string in a telephone. In an old-style telephone, the person speaking vibrates a metal diaphragm. The diaphragm's vibrations rapidly compress and uncompress carbon granules, changing their resistance. A current passing through the granules is strengthened or lessened by the changing resistance. At the other end, the rapidly changing current runs through a speaker and causes its diaphragm to vibrate back and forth, so the second person hears the first person speaking. From the online article "Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?" June 27, 2000 http://science.howstuffworks.com/question410.htm