Virginia SOL 2.10.a
The Standard
Scholars and Inventors: Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Banneker, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Steve Jobs, Jonas Salk, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Mary Jackson
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students match each scholar or inventor to a major contribution. They explain how that work changed daily life, education, science, farming, transportation, communication, medicine, or space exploration.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a name, picture, or object, students identify the person and describe one contribution. They can explain the contribution's effect in a complete sentence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse Benjamin Franklin with Benjamin Banneker or Booker T. Washington with George Washington Carver. They may say Franklin invented electricity, Edison invented electricity, or Steve Jobs invented the first computer.
How to Assess It
- Give students four names and four contribution cards to match. Ask them to choose one match and write how the contribution helped people.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have pairs sort name, portrait, contribution, and impact cards into matched sets, then check each set with a reference sheet.
Ask students to write: Which person's work changed daily life the most, and what evidence supports your choice?
Play Contribution Clues, reading three clues while teams hold up the matching person's name card.
Create a classroom technology hunt linking lights, phones, computers, medicines, and model aircraft to people whose work helped shape them.
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Printable 2.10.a Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 2.10.a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- 2.10.c
Reformers and Champions: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Cesar Chavez, Dr. Martin Luther King...
- 2.7.b
Benjamin Franklin
- 1.5.d
Barrier Breakers: John Mercer Langston, Booker T. Washington, Maggie L. Walker, Barbara Johns, Arthur R. Ashe, Jr., and L. Douglas Wilder
- 2.10.b
Explorers and Adventurers: Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea, Neil Armstrong, and Amelia Earhart;
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