ACE is celebrating Black History Month with a series of blogs throughout out the month of February. We will look at Black History Month through the lens of the Climate Movement.

This post is part 4 and it comes from our Atlanta Educator Amber Nave.  Read Part 1 & Part 2 & Part 3.

The Champion Theme Middle School Science Club supported ACE’s efforts to celebrate Black History Month and the climate movement by recreating African American inventions from recycled and reusable materials.

Science Club members were initially uneasy about choosing this project because they thought it would be a lot of work. Ms. Taylor, their faculty sponsor, reassured students that the project would be more fun than work, especially since the club had been learning about the importance of recycling and reusing materials, this semester.

Without hesitation, the students took Ms.Taylor’s advice and and decided on a plan for completing the project.  Students worked together to research African American inventors and picked inventions that they use or consume on a regular basis.

Some of the inventions included: the traffic light and gas mask (invented by Garret Morgan), the potato chip (invented by George Crum), interchangeable video game cartridges (invented by George Lawson) and improvements to the ironing board (patented by Sarah Boone.

At the end of the project the students were eager to show off their work to parents, friends and teachers. What seemed to be a challenging project turned into a fun and creative learning experience for all.