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Grade 5 Social Studies · World 2: Bigger, Better, Faster · Level 16
Bell and Edison
Describe the telephone and electric light.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 16
- Imagine a home with no phone and no light switch. That was normal in 1870. Two inventors helped change that.
- Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland and taught deaf students about speech. In 1876 Bell patented the telephone, which sent voices along a wire.
- Thomas Edison ran a workshop in New Jersey that tried idea after idea. In 1879 it made a light bulb that lasted. It also made the phonograph, which played sound.
- Edison's team also built power stations to carry electricity to buildings. Lewis Latimer, a Black inventor, improved the part of the bulb that glows.
- Stores could stay open later. Factories ran after dark. Families could call far-off relatives. Daily life had changed.
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:
- SS5H1.b — Describe the impact on American life of the Wright brothers (flight), George Washington Carver (science), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and Thomas Edison (electricity).