Famous African American Inventors Research Project: Black History Month Activity

Explore the lives of 27 famous African American inventors and their inventions. Four scaffolded research sheets control the depth of your project. Themed templates with photos make a great display or bulletin board. You can use the activities during Black History Month or anytime.

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This activity is scalable. If you're short on time, you can use less pages. Would you like a full-blown research project? Use them all. (Or you can do something more in the middle.)

• For the simplest activity, assign only the first page (basic information).
• To add complexity, also assign the second page (challenges inventors faced and people who helped).
• For the most thorough assignment, add the third page (how history changed the person’s life, how the person changed history).
• A fourth page lets kids focus on one specific invention. They describe it, explain the problem and inspiration behind it, and more.
• A double timeline also helps students visualize cause-effect relationships in history.

It allows you to differentiate. Meet the needs of each you teach! You can assign the same number of research sheets to every student or vary requirements for differentiation.

You can let kids collaborate (or not.) Fourth, fifth, or sixth grade students may work independently, as partners, or in small groups to complete this informative writing project.

Printed pages make a stunning bulletin board or classroom display. They’re perfect for Black History Month – or anytime.

• For each person, you'll receive a page with a large picture of the person. Kids simply write important contributions at the bottom. When you only use this page, your class can whip up a beautiful display - or collective biography of African American inventors - in one class period.
• Themed writing paper with a small picture of the person lets kids write. Whether it's a bulleted list or research paper, it also makes a great display.
• For the largest bulletin board - and most wow factor - staple both pages side-by-side on a large piece of construction paper.

It's digital too. Want to go paperless? Let them respond with Easel Activities.

Files include everything you need for the project:

• Lesson plans
• List of featured African American innovators
• 4 sheets of research questions
• Double timeline
• Works cited
• List of transition terms
• 27 contribution pages, each featuring name and large photo
• 27 themed writing pages, each featuring the name and small photo
• Editable rubric

Each student or group explores one famous Black inventor:

• Patricia Bath
• Andrew Jackson Beard
• Otis Boykin
• Albert and Marie Brown
• George Carruthers
• George Washington Carver
• Alfred Cralle
• David Crosthwait
• Mark Dean
• Philip Downing
• Charles Drew
• Sarah E. Goode
• Bessie Blount Griffin
• Walter Lincoln Hawkins
• Thomas L. Jennings
• Lonnie Johnson
• Frederick McKinley Jones
• Marjorie Joyner
• Percy Lavon Julian
• Lewis Howard Latimer
• Elijah McCoy
• Alexander Miles
• Garrett Morgan
• Samuel R. Scottron
• Valerie Thomas
• Madam C. J. Walker
• Granville Woods

Your students will love this project – and you will too!

• Whether you use it for Black History Month, as a social studies project, or to teach research skills, it’s sure to be a hit.
• The pages provide just the right amount of support to keep kids working independently.
• They’ll enjoy learning about African American inventors and their inventions.
• Activities address the intent of your ELA standards. For example, if you teach CCSS W.4.7, W.5.7, or W.6.7, you can rest assured that students will master skills necessary to write a short research paper.

Although this activity was created for kids in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the format has worked well for students in middle and high school as well.

Looking for a more generic Black History Month activity? Check out my Famous African Americans research project.

Enjoy teaching!

Brenda Kovich