Questions: Happy Birthday!Thomas Edison

1. List three challenges, or hardships, (no losing his hearing) Thomas Edison faced as a child. What would be the most challenging for you? Explain your answer.
2. How did Thomas Edison feel about losing his hearing?
3. How many inventions did Edison patent?
4. List three of Edison’s inventions mentioned in this episode. Draw and label these inventions.
5. Which of Edison’s invention has the most impact on your life? Support your answer. This invention does not need to have been mentioned in this episode.
6. In this episode, Mr. Gardner indicates that Edison worked both alone and with a team. What do you think he preferred? Design a Venn diagram to compare and contrast both methods of working.
7. Mr. Gardner makes several statements about what one can learn from studying Thomas Edison’s life. List three of these. Which statement do you think is the most important? Explain your answer.
8. For additional information on the says of Thomas Edison, click on Other Fun Websites. Then, click on History Alive. Open the Edison link on the left side of the page.

Research Challenge: Is there a difference between an invention and a patented invention? What is the difference? ( Hint: Ask a lawyer)

Design a word wall using one of the following words: patent, portray, addled, liability, asset.

The idea of a word wall is to generate a list of words related to the main word. These can be synonyms, antonyms, idioms, similes, or sayings related to the main word. You could also add affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to the main word. An example of a word wall using the word wise might include the following words: wisely, unwisely, unwise, wisdom, intelligent, smart, silly, wise as an owl. The last step in building a word wall is to classify the words by arranging them into related groups.