Students in 8th grade history worked with K’Nex last week to learn about interchangeable parts, Samuel Slater, and industrial espionage. Slater was an early industrialist known as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution” and the “Father of the American Factory System.” Students created imaginary textile machines that their classmates tried to steal tomorrow by rebuilding them from memory in a given amount of time. The students will also be working on an assembly line to create paper shirtwaists. These classroom simulations allow eighth graders to get a better understanding of the impact of industrialization on American lifestyles and work productivity during the turn of the 20th Century.
The Sum of Our Parts
