21st century skills

Smithsonian

The Object of History

created by Smithsonian

The Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation created a companion website to their traveling Invention at Play Exhibition. This multidisciplinary site can be used with a wide range of grades.

The Object of History Website

Invention at Play Website

Creativity and Innovation

The site contains engaging interactives and hands-on activities that highlight and explore play as an important element to the process of invention and innovation.

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Research and Information Fluency

Tinker Ball from the Invention Playhouse

Critical Thinking and Systems

The online game Tinker Ball from the Invention Playhouse provides teachers with a fun way to promote critical thinking by allowing students to tinker with a virtual Rube Goldberg contraption.

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Video resource

Tinker Ball components

From Tinkering to Thinking

Teachers can help students move from random exploration to systematic experimentation by asking them to make predictions and keep track of the behaviors of the various components and the results of each contraption.

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Virtual Exhibit Tool

History of Technology

The Invention at Play website offers a number of other interactives and project ideas that connect the history of technological innovation with hands on activities for students.

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Virtual Exhibit Tool

Invention at Play Teacher's Manual

Further Development

The Invention at Play Educator's Manual is available in a print version has many additional resources that promote a variety of 21st Century thinking concepts such as social play and communication, brainstorming, and prototyping.

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21st century skills
 
 
 

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