While we enjoyed the stories of specific inventions and inventors (the paper bag particularly stuck with my kids), one of the most interesting parts of this study was the process. Even in the fantastical accounts of inventing, the inventors had to work through the scientific method, endure failures, and recover from setbacks on the way to making amazing things. The stories below include biography, history, science, and fiction, but they all emphasize the importance of persistence in problem solving.
- Watch The Absent-Minded Professor
- All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine by Monica Kulling and Bill Slavin
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
- Watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
- Eat My Dust! Henry Ford’s First Race by Monica Kulling and Richard Walz
- Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd
- Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmeah and Melissa Sweet
- How Nearly Everything Was Invented by the Brainwaves
- Incredible Inventions poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach
- Invention by DK Eyewitness
- The Inventor’s Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade and Jennifer Black Reinhardt
- In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up by Monica Kulling and David Parkins
- Inventor McGregor by Kathleen Pelley and Michael Chesworth
- Leonardo and the Flying Boy: A Story about Leonardo Da Vinci by Laurence Anholt
- Listen Up! Alexander Graham Bell’s Talking Machine by Monica Kulling and Richard Walz
- Mad Margaret Experiments with the Scientific Method by Eric Braun and Robin Boyden
- Play Hasbro’s Mousetrap
- Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis and Gilbert Ford
- Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gener Barretta
- Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Barretta
- Oh, the Things They Invented! All About Great Inventors by Bonnie Worth, Aristides Ruiz, and Joe Mathieu
- Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming and Boris Kulikov
- Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy
- Watch Robots
- Robots, Robots, Everywhere! by Sue Fliess and Bob Staake
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts
- Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen
- Wendel’s Workshop by Chris Riddell
- Watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory