Invention: Key to the Industrial Revolution - Meet the Big 12

The Industrial Revolution - you want to keep it simple because your students only need basic information. Here’s the unit for you - “Invention: Key to the Industrial Revolution - Meet the Big 12.” After a brief introduction of what the Industrial Revolution was, how it came into being, and how it affected society, my slide show illustrates the 12 key inventions with simple “how-they-worked” explanations, along with more than 50 pictures of the inventions and their inventors. The slide show runs for 18 pages and is accompanied by a seven-page narrator’s script with nearly 70 bulleted facts - it is appropriate for 4th and 5th graders.

But if your students are a little older and would enjoy the fascinating facts of these inventor’s lives, I’ve also created an extended slide show of 22-pages with a 16-page narrator’s script that includes nearly 200 bulleted facts. This extended version also includes an overview of factory conditions and pollution, living conditions, and reform during the Industrial Revolution. It is appropriate for students through junior high school.

I’ve also included templates for students to keep track of the inventions and how they affected work during the Industrial Revolution. This template can be used as a graded assignment to show that your students understand the information presented in the slide show. An answer key is provided.

Inventions covered in the slide shows are:
• Seed drill and Jethro Tull
• Simple steam engine and Thomas Newcomen
• Flying shuttle and John Kay
• Spinning jenny and James Hargreaves
• Water frame and Richard Arkwright
• Steam engine and James Watt
• Spinning mule and Samuel Crompton
• Puddling and rolling iron processes and Henry Cort
• Power loom and Edmund Cartwright
• Cotton gin and Eli Whitney
• Canals
• Railroads and Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson

All text is available as a PDF, while the slide shows are available in both Apple Keynote and Microsoft Powerpoint.