Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the George Washington Carver Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic George Washington Carver, and supports the standard of analyzing individuals’ contributions to scientific and societal progress. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What famous inventors do you know? Why are they important?
  • What ideas do you have for a new invention? What problem would your invention solve?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

Read the description on the George Washington Carver topic page.

  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the five Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY & ASSESS 

Students take the George Washington Carver Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express understanding of George Washington Carver while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a biopic of George Washington Carver that highlights his greatest accomplishments.  
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying and explaining three of Carver’s major contributions to agricultural science.  
  • Creative Coding: Code a digital museum exhibit featuring artifacts to represent Carver’s inventions and innovations.  

More to Explore

Time Zone X: George Washington Carver: Place historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game. 

Famous Scientists Unit: Continue to build understanding around individual’s scientific contributions with BrainPOP topics.

Teacher Support Resources:

 

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments