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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 9

Industry & Inventors

Steel, mills and new inventions

What your child practices

How industry and farming grew in the early 1900s: Birmingham's iron and steel, textiles and timber, growing cities, and inventors and entrepreneurs, including Alabamians George Washington Carver and Mary Anderson.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.1 · the growth of industry and agriculture in the early twentieth century, inventors and entrepreneurs, and the growth of cities such as Birmingham

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. An inventor creates a new machine or way of doing something.
  2. Around 1900, Birmingham grew so fast with iron and steel that it was called the Magic City. Sloss Furnaces made iron.
  3. Big businesses grew, like Rockefeller's oil. The Good Roads Movement paved roads.

Example: Why was Birmingham called the Magic City? Iron and steel mills brought many jobs. The city grew very fast. Answer: It grew so fast around 1900.

Industry & Inventors in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 1 of 9 in 5th grade Social Studies, before The Progressive Era.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Lewis Latimer, a Black inventor, improved the…

    • rocket
    • cotton gin
    • steam engine
    • light bulb

  2. Question 2

    Henry Ford made cars cheaper by using the…

    • cotton gin
    • moving assembly line
    • telegraph
    • steamboat

  3. Question 3

    George Washington Carver, who worked at Tuskegee Institute, is famous for finding many uses for…

    • steel and glass
    • oil and gas
    • peanuts and sweet potatoes
    • coal and iron

  4. Question 4

    Mary Anderson of Alabama invented the…

    • telephone
    • windshield wiper
    • airplane
    • light bulb

  5. Question 5

    Carver taught farmers to rotate crops because growing only cotton…

    • used no land
    • was against the law
    • wore out the soil
    • made soil richer

  6. Question 6

    Carver's work helped make which crop important in Alabama's Wiregrass region?

    • peanuts
    • rice
    • sugar cane
    • coffee

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