Inventor in the Making!

This is an Inventions WebQuest created to be used with elementary talented and gifted students. To complete the entire process, it will take students about 20 - 30 hours. Before using the WebQuest, my class engaged in creativity (fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality) exercises to get them warmed-up and thinking. S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is a great activity to use with students to introduce them to inventing.

Standards

The standards used for this WebQuest, from the Iowa Core curriculum, grades 3-5 are:
Behavioral Sciences:
Understand the changing nature of society.
Social Studies:
Understand the role of innovation on the development and interaction of societies.
21st Century Skills:
Communicate and work productively with others, emphasizing collaboration and cultural awareness to produce quality work.
Adjust to various roles and responsibilties and understand the need to be flexible to change.
Practice leadership skills and demonstrate integrity, ethical behavior, and social responsibility in all activities.
Demonstrate initiative, creativity, self-direction, and entrepreneurial thinking to produce successful outcomes.
Use technology resources to create original products, identify patterns and problems, make predictions, and propose solutions.
Use technological resources to develop and refine questions for investigation.

Credits

I used many of the ideas, and the rubric, from the Invent Iowa Curriculum Guide, written by the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development (authors are Clar Baldus, Catherine Blandos, Laurie Croft, and Catherine M. Hirsch), Copyright 2005.
Thank you to the Waterloo Schools ELP teachers (Carol Boyce, Amy McGovern, Sally Goodenbour, Robin Loes, Stacey Jambura, Carrie Taylor) for your ideas and resources for our inventions unit!
Pictures were used with permission from www.iowaaeaonline.org - iCLIPART for Schools.