Grade Level:Five

Description of Activity:
The Modern Fashion and Invention Activity will give students a chance to use their imaginations to become creative inventors, while at the same time, integrating language arts, information skills, and computer skills. Students will work in small cooperative groups.  Each group will select a unique piece of "junk" from a collection of gadgets the teacher has put together.  The groups’ job is to come up with a NEW and creative invention for their gadget.  The group will use a digital camera to photograph the new invention in use, write a sales advertisement for the invention, and design a web page to display the articles and photographs of the new invention.

Materials:

• A collection of unique contraptions (Examples: old tools, baskets, calculators, parts from something torn apart). The more unique the contraption, the more imaginative inventions students will create.
• Digital camera(s)
• Computers with Internet access, Netscape Navigator and Composer, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Word
• Zip Disk for each student
• Floppy Disk for each student

Activity:

•  Explain activity to students
•  Divide students into equal groups; make sure there is a computer for each group
•  Present contraptions to class
•  Groups will choose one contraption
•  Groups will create a new invention for the contraption
•  Groups will take pictures of the invention in use, using digital cameras
•  If needed, the teacher will help students with digital cameras
•  Adjust pictures using Adobe Photoshop (Hints on resizing in Adobe Photoshop)
•  Individually, students will use Microsoft Word to write advertisements for the new invention
•  Students will create a web page to display their invention advertisements and photographs  (teacher assistant may be required) using Netscape Composer. (Hints for Netscape Composer)
• Have students email you about his/her progress with the web page

***It is also important for teachers to remember how every student is different.
    For students with learning disabilities or physical disabilities, software and
    computer accessories are available for assistance.  For example, if you have a
    student with a disability that has trouble using a mouse on the computer, you can
    go to Settings, then control panel and click on the "mouse" icon to change the mouse
    settings to accommodate that person.***
 
Objectives this activity meets for fifth grade NC Standard Course of Study: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/

Language Arts:  1.03, 1.04, 2.01, 4.03, 4.04, 4.05, 4.06, 4.07, 4.08, 4.09, 4.10, 5.01,
                        5.07, 5.08
Information Skills: 4.09, 4.10, 5.02, 5.04, 5.05
Computer Skills Curriculum: 2.1, 2.4, 3.5