This is a history of inventions and races. I don’t know why I decided to call it that. I was thinking about the first great automobile race, which I bought a book for. I hope I still have the book.

I said it would be “a history class on inventions with games and races as the focus. So we’ve got the Olympics, the book Around the World in 80 Days, the real life adventure of Nellie Bly who did that, the first automobile race which went from New York to France, via Japan and China, etc.”

Sites that might be helpful for compiling the syllabus for this course:

CBC Kids- History of inventions. It includes a timeline and such items as toothpaste. It might be fun to bring some weird things people used to make toothpaste out of to mix up in class. Ashes and myrrh. Ground china and brick.

An online interactive game for the railroad.

Site for historical info on the Olympics.

What about the Underground Railroad?

There are some good sites on the Great Auto Race. It’s 100th anniversary is next year! I hope I have that book.

Could do Lewis and Clark and the “race” across America. I have coloring pages for that. We could do crafts from that era. I have a book on those too.

Magellan’s trip around the world.

Columbus’ trip to America.

history of bicycles: races?

History of airplanes: first person to fly, who was it?

Kites and fireworks: can we get the mythbusters where they try to launch someone with fireworks