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A Discussion Guide for
MAKING IT HAPPEN: MASTERS OF
INVENTION
CONTENT
Though most
people can identify inventors Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham
Bell, they may never have heard of Lewis Latimer or Granville T.
Woods, Edison’s and Bell’s equally brilliant African-American
competitors. Actor Glynn Turman introduces black men and women
whose inventions have contributed to society from the time of
slavery to today.
Here are
Benjamin Banneker, the multi-talented inventor, author and
philosopher of the 1700’s, and Norbert Rilleaux, inventor of a sugar
refining process still used today, a man so constrained by race laws
that he left the U.S. forever. The program also recognizes Dr.
George Washington Carver, known as the “Savior of the South,”
Garrett Morgan, inventor of the traffic signal, Dr. Patricia Bath,
inventor of the laserphaco probe and a modern spokeswoman for
African-American achievement, and many more. Take a fascinating
look at history as seen and made by African-Americans whose
contributions have been ignored for far too long.
OBJECTIVES
After viewing,
the audience should be able to:
- Become aware
and proud of the inventive legacy of African-Americans;
- Discuss how
these inventions improved society for all people;
- Explore how
slavery and race laws affected African-Americans’ lives,
creativity and recognition;
- Research
other minority inventors from history and current times;
- Be motivated
to create their own inventions.
DISCUSSION
AND ACTIVITIES
Before
viewing
List these words
on the board or chart: traffic light, gas mask, ironing board,
peanut oil, improved radiator, third-rail subway.
Ask if anyone
can say who thought of these inventions.
After
viewing:
- Go back to
the “before viewing” question and ask it again.
Why are the inventors of these commonly-used products so poorly
known?
- Turman quotes
the African proverb “As the wound inflames the finger, so thought
inflames the mind.” Discuss what this means in general, and how
slavery chained the body, but often freed the creative spirit,
particularly in music.
- What was the
Plessy vs. Ferguson case? What were Jim Crow laws, and how does
their legacy persist today?
- What were
freemen? How would they have fared under slavery? Under Jim Crow
laws?
- Why have
African-Americans (and so many minorities) been almost invisible
in intellectual and leadership roles in the United States? Is this changing now? How and Why?
- Research and
report on other inventions by African-American, and by other
minorities as well.
- Brainstorm
ideas about how one comes up with an invention. What is the
creative process? What often is the trigger? (need)
- From
magazines and newspaper ads, have the group make a collage of
inventions by African-Americans, and identify each invention with
its creator.
- Hold an
“invention convention”, with individuals or small groups drawing
their own invention and describing what it does and how it works.
Have the inventors actually make the product, it practical.
- Contact the
U.S. Patent office for information on how inventions are
patented. (The address is U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,
Washington, D.C., 20231.) If any of the inventions from the previous activity are
appropriate, encourage the inventor to follow through on the
patent process.
- Research how
an invention, once patented, gets into distribution
An Oliver Communications/Kawseff Productions
program produced by Bob Oliver and James Graves. Post DVD
production and duplication by LightStream Media.
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