TED-Ed has a series of twelve video lessons called Moments of Vision. The videos in the series teach short lessons about inventions that may or may not have changed the world. For example, the invention of the stethoscope did change health care. The invention of the Popsicle, however, just makes summer days a little more enjoyable. Those are just two of the twelve inventions featured in TED-Ed’s Moments of Vision series.

Ask your students to look around their homes or around your school for everyday items that many of us use. Then send them off to research and present the origins of those everyday items. Here are two items that come to mind as I look at my desk; screw top jars and tabs on soda pop cans.