By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Identify the role of labor productivity in promoting economic growth
Analyze the sources of economic growth using the aggregate production function
Measure an economy’s rate of productivity growth
Evaluate the power of sustained growth

This site provides information on American inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Singer, Wilbur Wright, Thomas Alva Edison, Elias Howe, and Alexander Graham Bell. It offers pictures from and links to exhibits in the various Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.

Rapid prototyping is a method used to accelerate the innovation process. Tom Chi explains how this method was used to create one of Google's newest inventions, Google Glass. [8:08]

Students are introduced to the engineering design process, focusing on the concept of brainstorming design alternatives. They learn that engineering is about designing creative ways to improve existing artifacts, technologies or processes, or developing new inventions that benefit society. Students come to realize that they can be engineers and use the design process themselves to create tomorrow's innovations.

The airplanes unit begins with a lesson on how airplanes create lift, which involves a discussion of air pressure and how wings use Bernoulli's principle to change air pressure. Next, students explore the other three forces acting on airplanes thrust, weight and drag. Following these lessons, students learn how airplanes are controlled and use paper airplanes to demonstrate these principles. The final lessons addresses societal and technological impacts that airplanes have had on our world. Students learn about different kinds of airplanes and then design and build their own balsa wood airplanes based on what they have learned.