• Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
Patricia NewmanPatricia Newman
Sibert Honor Children's Book Author & Environmentalist
  • Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
BenjaminBanneker-interior1

LitLinks: How Benjamin Banneker can surprise your students

August 25, 2021 LitLinks, LitLinks-Grade 3-5, LitLinks-Grade 6-8, LitLinks-High School No Comments
LitLinks Logo-1 (2)

GUEST BLOGGER SHANA KELLER


Ticktock cover

Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731. He grew up on a farm near Ellicott City, Maryland. Though he is not as well-known as Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Banneker was also a scientist and inventor. As a young man, he ventured into town every few weeks to purchase supplies, learn news about the colonies, and solve math problems sent to him by neighbors and other farmers. He also wrote almanacs, predicted eclipses, helped survey the District of Columbia, and created a strike clock by reverse engineering a pocket watch.

Reverse engineering like Benjamin Banneker

In Ticktock Banneker’s Clock, Benjamin Banneker uses a pocket watch as a model to build a strike clock by taking it apart step by step to see how it was made. By studying the process of Benjamin’s deconstruction of the pocket watch and his careful labeling of diagrams to rebuild it, students will then have an opportunity to analyze design structures and components. Through examining these devices, young engineers can improve upon current designs and inventions, or create their own.

Ask students if there is anything they have tried to take apart without instructions or a manual. In our home, we’ve taken apart bunkbeds, Oreos, computers, and fidget spinners, to name a few. After disassembling the objects, ask students how they would remember to put them back together again. Based on the items or objects they think of, ask students how detailed their diagrams would need to be to reconstruct their item. Ask if they would include written instructions, or just drawings, and why.

BenjaminBanneker-interior2

Why scales?

Benjamin made diagrams (drawings) of the pieces and where they went as he took the watch apart. These diagrams became an instruction manual of sorts. Next, he drew a larger version of his diagrams, a scale, to increase the size of his clock and to remember how to put the pocket watch back together.

Ask students the following questions:

  • Why are scales important?
  • How can we use scales?
  • Have you ever seen the phrase NOT TO SCALE? (Student answers are wide and varied, but some of the more common answers include micro machines, cereal boxes, and maps.)

Drawing to scale

A fun idea I love to share comes from Fast Times of a Middle School Math Teacher. Ask students to bring a candy wrapper to school, and then draw a centimeter grid over it. (Tip: tape the wrapper on grid paper so they can draw straight lines easier.)

After they grid their wrappers, allow students to decide on a scale they want to use. Than ask students to draw a new grid to match their scale factor. Once they finish the grid, they can begin to draw the images in the matching squares.

Social Studies & equality

A self-taught scientist, Benjamin Banneker was a free, land-owning, African American who lived during a period of slavery. This biography can open the dialogue about his social interactions, his education, landownership in Colonial America, and his ideology-including select correspondence with Thomas Jefferson regarding the issues of slavery.

Common Core alignment

3-5-ETS1 Engineering Design

CORE Curriculum – Engineering Design & Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Ideas/practices.


ShanaKeller.photo

Shana Keller writes books for children and young inventors. Entrenched in the world of STEM/STEAM, she is happy to share her experience filing a patent for her own invention. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education founded by Dr. LaGarrett J. King. She has authored three picture books with Sleeping Bear Press including Ticktock Banneker’s Clock, Best STEM Book, Children’s Book Council, illustrated by David C. Gardner, Fly, Firefly!, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki, and Bread for Words, A Frederick Douglass Story, an Irma Black Honor, illustrated by Kayla Stark. Her next title, The Peach Pit Parade illustrated by Margeaux Lucas will be released in the spring of 2022. For more information, please visit her online at www.shanakeller.com and on Instagram @theshanakeller.


Click for more LITLINKS STEM + Literacy activities

Tags: STEM+LiteracySTEM+Literacy Physical Science
No Comments
Share
1

You also might be interested in

Fibonacci-sequence

LitLinks: How to explore Fibonacci numbers with flowers

May 29, 2024

GUEST BLOGGER ERIN DEALEY The inspiration for JUST FLOWERS came[...]

LitLinks: Full STEAM ahead with lessons from the Titanic

Jun 23, 2021

GUEST BLOGGER KELLY MILNER HALLS Want to prove STEM matters?[...]

Boy-poking-head-out-of-hole

LitLinks: Explore a whole world of holes across STEAM disciplines

Apr 10, 2024

GUEST BLOGGER NORA NICKUM A hole is a part of[...]

Leave a Reply

Your email is safe with me.
Cancel Reply

Click the logo to have LitLinks delivered to your inbox

LitLinks Logo-2022

Author Visits

https://youtu.be/zj6n-RFOcPA?si=8WCTnyXbTiwYumYo
https://youtu.be/ziN0UrqaDYI

Earth Day Every Day Newsletter Archive

Earth-Day-Every-Day-newsletter-banner

Post Categories:

Blog Archive

Top Posts

LitLinks: How to share our ocean connections with kids and teens

LitLinks: Let’s learn to decode photos in STEM nonfiction

LitLinks: How Elephants Can Make Your Sound Unit ROAR!

LitLinks: Easy ways to build students’ science communication skills

Proof that science connects kids to the larger world

Recent Comments

  • Danna Smith on LitLinks: Did you know goats can teach children about homonyms? I love this series of books!
  • Raven Howell on LitLinks: Did you know goats can teach children about homonyms? Absolutely love this piece you wrote! Thanks for sharing your…
  • Annie Lynn on LitLinks: 3 easy ways to use animals to introduce onomatopoeia Wonderful idea to link sounds and musical instruments to nature…
Empowering young readers to act

Latest Blog Posts

  • LitLinks: How to use conservation to invigorate student writing
    LitLinks: How to use conservation to invigorate student writing
  • LitLinks: How playing with existing ideas might lead to new ones
    LitLinks: How playing with existing ideas might lead to new ones
  • LitLinks: How to create a sniffing map to explore our sense of smell
    LitLinks: How to create a sniffing map to explore our sense of smell

Connect with me on social media

Action Shots

Check out the STEM Tuesday Blog

© 2025 — Patricia Newman

  • Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
Prev Next