Suggested levels for Guided Reading, DRA, Lexile, and Reading Recovery are provided in the Pearson Scott Foresman Leveling Guide. A Few Nifty Inventions Genre Expository nonfiction Comprehension Skills and Strategy Fact and Opinion Main Idea and Details Inferring Text Features Time Line Headings Glossary Scott Foresman Reading Street 2.3.5 ISBN-13: 978-0-328-50845-7 ISBN-10: 0-328-50845-4 9 0 0 0 0 9 7 8 0 3 2 8 5 0 8 4 5 7
Vocabulary designed excel failed popular process research A Few Nifty Inventions Word count: 1,010 Note: The total word count includes words in the running text and headings only. Numerals and words in chapter titles, captions, labels, diagrams, charts, graphs, sidebars, and extra features are not included. Glenview, Illinois Boston, Massachusetts Chandler, Arizona Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Eyeglasses Photographs Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions. Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Pearson Education, Inc. Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd) Pizza Cover Manfred Kage/Peter Arnold Images/PhotoLibrary Group, Inc.; 1 Manfred Kage/ Peter Arnold Images/PhotoLibrary Group, Inc.; 3 (T) Getty Images, (C, BR) Jupiter Images; 4 Ewing Galloway/Alamy Images; 5 (B) Getty Images; 6 Ariel Skelley/Glow Images, (C) Getty Images; 7 Ionescu Bogdan/Fotolia; 8 Ionescu Bogdan/Fotolia, Silvano Rebai/Fotolia; 9 (B) Getty Images; 10 (TR, TL) Getty Images; 11 (B) Getty Images; 12 (TL) Brand X Pictures, (C) Getty Images; 13 Manfred Kage/Peter Arnold Images/ PhotoLibrary Group, Inc.; 14 (TL) Comstock Images, (C) Steve Gorton/DK Images; 15 SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc.; 16 (TR, TL) Getty Images; 17 (TL, TC, BR, BC) Getty Images, Ionescu Bogdan/Fotolia, (TR) Steve Gorton/DK Images, (BL) Tom Schierlitz/ Getty Images; 18 (B) Jupiter Images. ISBN 13: 978-0-328-50845-7 ISBN 10: 0-328-50845-4 Copyright by Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to Pearson Curriculum Rights & Permissions, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. Pearson is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or in other countries, of Pearson plc or its affiliates. Flashlight Everything we use was invented by someone. If you look around you will see that inventions are everywhere. Which of these inventions do you use? Do you know the stories of the inventions in these photographs? Scott Foresman is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or in other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 13 12 11 10 09 3
Early motor cars were horse carriages with engines. An invention is something new that someone makes or thinks of. To invent things, inventors must first have ideas. They research each idea, and then try the ideas, step by step. Inventors learn from ideas that work, but they also learn from failed ideas. Failed ideas can help them come up with new ideas. Some inventions solve problems. Some make things work better. Some inventions happen by accident. But all inventions have one thing in common they all start with an idea. 4 Chester Greenwood s Cold Ear Problem Fifteen-year-old Chester Greenwood lived in Maine. He liked to ice-skate on freezing winter days. But he had a problem his ears were always cold! One day in 1873, he had an idea. Chester bent a piece of wire into a U-shape. He asked his grandmother to sew a pad made of fur on each end. Now he could stay outside and skate longer with his friends. His ears were warm and toasty! Chester s idea led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? 5
Earmuffs Mary Anderson s Streetcar Trip In 1902, Mary Anderson had an idea. It was a snowy day in New York City, and it was Mary s first trip on a streetcar. Mary watched the driver shiver as he reached out to clear the snow that had piled up on the windshield. Mary took out her notebook and began to draw. She designed an arm that would swing back and forth on the windshield. The arm would be controlled by a lever near the driver inside the streetcar. Mary s idea led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? If you guessed earmuffs, you re right! Chester s friends wanted their ears to be warm too. Chester started making more earmuffs. Soon Chester started selling them. He called them Champion Ear Protectors. Today, every December 21, the people in Chester s home town celebrate Chester Greenwood Day in his honor. 6 7
Arnold Fornachou s and Ernest Hamwi s Accidental Invention Windshield wipers In 1904, Arnold Fornachou was selling ice cream at the World s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a hot summer day, and he had so many customers that he ran out of ice cream dishes. The baker next to Arnold was named Ernest Hamwi. Ernest was selling very thin pastries. Arnold and Ernest decided to work together. They rolled Ernest s pastries into a cone shape and filled them with ice cream. Arnold s and Ernest s idea led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? If you guessed windshield wipers, you re right! Windshield wipers have changed over the years. Today, every kind of vehicle has windshield wipers so that the driver can drive safely on a rainy or snowy day and keep warm at the same time. Years later, another inventor tried to use Mary s idea to invent windshield wipers for eyeglasses, but the idea did not sell. 8 9
Ice cream cone Ruth Wakefield s Mistake In 1930, Ruth Wakefield wanted to bake a special cookie for her new restaurant. She started with her favorite cookie recipe. Then she broke a chocolate bar into small bits and stirred the chocolate into the cookie batter. She thought the chocolate bits would melt into chocolate swirls. But she was wrong! The chocolate did not melt completely. It stayed in the batter as little pieces. Ruth s idea led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? If you guessed an ice cream cone, you re right! Since then, people have invented machines to make many different kinds of ice cream cones. The machines can make about 150,000 ice cream cones a day! 10 11
George de Mestral s Hike Chocolate chip cookies In 1948, while George de Mestral was hiking in the woods, he noticed something. Small, prickly burrs from bushes he brushed against were sticking to his clothes. Later, George looked at one burr under a microscope. He saw it was covered with hundreds of tiny hooks. The hooks had grabbed onto the loops of the fabric on his clothes. He realized that he could use this idea to fasten two things together. George s idea led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? If you guessed chocolate chip cookies, you re right! Everyone loved Ruth s cookies. They became very popular. The company that made the chocolate bar soon started making chocolate chips that people could pour out of the bag right into the cookie batter. 12 13
Spencer Silver s Failed Idea Velcro If you guessed Velcro, you re right! Velcro is made up of two strips of special fabric. One strip has tiny hooks. The other strip has tiny loops. When the two strips are pressed together, they form a strong bond. Velcro is used on many everyday objects. Have you ever had Velcro on your shoes? It is even used by astronauts in space. 14 Spencer Silver was a scientist in the 1970s. His job was to make a very strong glue. In the process of making the glue, something went wrong. Spencer s idea did not work. He made a glue that was very weak. Some people thought it was useless. But Art Fry, who worked with Spencer, thought the glue was interesting. The glue could be applied to any surface and then be peeled off and used again. Art applied Spencer s glue to some small slips of paper. Art s idea of using Spencer s weak glue led to a new invention. Can you guess which one? 15
Inventions! Self-stick notes 1873 earmuffs If you guessed self-stick notes, you re right! Today, you can buy self-stick notes in every size and color. Some people use the notes for bookmarks. Some people write messages on them. Next time you put a self-stick note on something, be sure to thank the scientists who didn t throw away an invention that did not work! Ideas can come at any time and in any place. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you excel at coming up with ideas, you just might create a few inventions of your own! 16 1904 ice cream cone 1948 Velcro 1970 1902 self-stick notes windshield wipers 1930 chocolate chip cookies 17
Now Try This Thinking Like an Inventor Inventors think of many ideas. Then they choose their best ideas and try to make them work. Now it s your turn to invent. Before you begin, think about this question: What are some everyday problems that need solutions? 18 to Do It! w o H s e r He 1. Fold a sheet of paper in half. Write Problems on the left half. Write Solutions on the right half. 2. Now brainstorm! Make a list of problems and your ideas for solutions. For example, a problem you might think of could be finding the time to get your chores done, or your homework done. How could you fix these problems and make them fun to do? 3. Think of lots of solutions. Some won t seem right. Some will sound pretty good. Some will sound terrific. Write down all of them! 4. Circle your best idea. 5. Draw pictures of how your idea might look as an invention. 6. Share your invention with your class. 19
Glossary Think and Share Read Together designed v. planned, created, or drawn. excel v. to do better than others. failed adj. tried, but not successful. popular adj. liked by many people. process n. actions done to get to a result. research v. hunting for facts or truth. 1. Read page 15 again. What opinion is included on the page? Do you agree with the opinion? Why or why not? 2. After reading this book, what can you infer, or guess, about most inventors? How does this help you better understand the book? 3. Can you think of a project or topic that you had to research? Where did you go to research it? What new ideas can you think of that would help you research a topic? 4. Look at the time line on page 17. Which invention was invented first? Next? Last? How do you know? Use the chart below to record your answers. First Next Last 20