Using History to Teach Invention and Design: The Case of the Telephone

This paper shows how a historical case, the invention of the telephone, can be used to teach invention and design in a way that combines engineering, social sciences, and humanities. The historical problem of transmitting speech was turned into an active learning module, in which students sought to improve patents obtained by early telephone inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, using equipment similar to what was available at the time. The result was a collaborative learning environment in which students from a wide range of majors worked in teams, eventually producing a patent application. As part of the project, they were allowed to search historical materials like the Bell notebooks, which were made available on line. This experience gave them a better understanding of the invention and design process.

[1]  J. Maxwell.  The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell , 2009 .

[2]  William M. Smith,et al.  A Study of Thinking , 1956 .

[3]  P. Wason.  On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task , 1960 .

[4]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[5]  I. Steiner.  Group process and productivity , 1972 .

[6]  H. Sharlin,et al.  Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude by Robert V. Bruce (review) , 1974 .

[7]  D. Kevles,et al.  The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America , 1977 .

[8]  Imre Lakatos,et al.  The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes , 1978 .

[9]  Louise A. Mauffette-Leenders,et al.  Teaching With Cases , 1981 .

[10]  I. Janis.  Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes , 1982 .

[11]  H. Gardner,et al.  Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences , 1983 .

[12]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[13]  Susan Leigh Star,et al.  Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice by H. M. Collins (review) , 1988, Technology and Culture.

[14]  K. Thompson.  Cognitive and Analytical Psychology Howard Gardner .Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York, Basic Books, 1983. , 1985 .

[15]  M. Gorman.  Falsification in Experimental and Classroom Simulations , 1986 .

[16]  Richard Rhodes,et al.  The Making of the Atomic Bomb , 1989 .

[17]  J. Klayman,et al.  Confirmation, Disconfirmation, and Informa-tion in Hypothesis Testing , 1987 .

[18]  George Basalla,et al.  The Evolution of Technology: Selection (2): Social and Cultural Factors , 1989 .

[19]  R. J. Weber,et al.  How to invent artifacts and ideas , 1989 .

[20]  D. Gooding.  Experiment and the Making of Meaning: Human Agency in Scientific Observation and Experiment , 1990 .

[21]  M. Gorman,et al.  Interpreting Invention as a Cognitive Process: The Case of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Telephone , 1990 .

[22]  Janet L. Kolodner,et al.  Improving Human Decision Making through Case-Based Decision Aiding , 1991, AI Mag..

[23]  D. Ihde.  Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology , 1991 .

[24]  L. Schauble,et al.  Students' transition from an engineering model to a science model of experimentation , 1991 .

[25]  Robert J. Weber,et al.  Forks, Phonographs, and Hot Air Balloons: A Field Guide to Inventive Thinking , 1992 .

[26]  M. Gorman.  Simulating Science: Heuristics, Mental Models, and Technoscientific Thinking , 1992 .

[27]  Eugene S. Ferguson,et al.  Engineering and the Mind's Eye , 1994 .

[28]  Michael E. Gorman,et al.  Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas , 1993 .

[29]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine , 1993 .

[30]  Henry Petroski,et al.  Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering , 1994 .

[31]  M. R. Matthews.  Science teaching : the role of history and philosophy of science , 1994 .

[32]  D. MacKenzie,et al.  Tacit Knowledge, Weapons Design, and the Uninvention of Nuclear Weapons , 1995, American Journal of Sociology.

[33]  Pa Peter Kroes,et al.  Technology and Science-Based Heuristics , 1995 .

[34]  Michael E. Gorman,et al.  Teaching Invention and Design: Multi‐Disciplinary Learning Modules , 1995 .

[35]  Neil Baldwin,et al.  Edison: Inventing the Century , 1995 .

[36]  Marcia C. Linn,et al.  Designing Pascal Solutions: Case Studies Using Data Structures , 1995 .

[37]  Wolff‐Michael Roth,et al.  Applications of Science and Technology Studies: Effecting Change in Science Education , 1996 .

[38]  Jon Agar,et al.  History of computing: approaches, new directions and the possibility of informatic history , 1998 .

[39]  J. Plucker,et al.  Turning Students into Inventors: Active Learning Modules for Secondary Students , 1998 .