Industrial Revolution

Summary

In this lesson, students will come to understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted individuals. They will examine how the change from shop or cottage industry to the factory affected people, how the railroad affected individuals, and how some of the inventions of the Industrial Revolution changed individual lives.

Materials

Instructional Procedures

• Construct rifles activity (see materials section) using construction paper as an individual in a 5 minute period, then get into groups and repeat the activity for 5 minutes to compare how much faster the construction can be done in a group.
• Read individual accounts of Rose Cohen: First Day in a Sweatshop and Joseph Miliauskas: Breaker Boy from We Were There, Too.
• Study a railroad map of the United States and identify places and regions where the railroad expanded during the 19th century. Discuss what changes took place in reference to population etc.
• Draw evidence from historical pictures of inventions and what the inventions did to help the people. Watch video clips from Seabiscuit.

Assessment Plan

• Complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the cottage industry to the factory industry.
• Create a journal for a week of a child working in a factory.
• Write a paragraph explaining how the railroad has changed the face of the United States using three ideas.
• Describe 3 inventions of the Industrial Revolution Era and explain how the inventions changed lives of the time.