Who made the video game cartridge, and how do we know? This ready-to-teach packet turns a short song into three lessons on reading, history and engineering.
In Somebody Before Me: Jerry Lawson & the Video Game Cartridge, a curious child meets Jerry Lawson, a Black engineer who grew up in Queens, New York. Home game machines once had the same few games built inside, so Jerry led the team at Fairchild that made swappable game cartridges. Their Channel F (1976) was the first home console with interchangeable cartridges. Students then visit a museum's record of the real 1976 machine to find out how we know.
What's inside (24-page printable PDF):
3 sessions of 30–40 minutes each: Who Made This?, How Do We Know? and What Will YOU Make?
A Museum Detective page built on The Henry Ford's record for the real Channel F. Students find the maker, date and place, like real historians.
Two reading levels (K–1 and grades 2–3) with comprehension questions
Cartridge Slide Test: a hands-on engineering test. Which pretend cartridge lasts through 10 slides?
Sing-along lyric sheet, word cards, a problem-and-solution page, a timeline to cut and sort, and a then-and-now page
My Invention Plan and a Classroom Patent certificate
Standards: Common Core RI.2.1, RI.2.3, RI.2.7, W.2.2 and SL.2.1; NGSS K-2-ETS1-1, K-2-ETS1-2 and K-2-ETS1-3; C3 Framework D2.His.2.K-2 and D2.His.11.K-2
Teacher background, teaching-with-care notes (including how to credit a team invention), differentiation, a family page, an answer key and full source links
Works with the free video on Teach Between the Lines TV (about 1½ minutes, captions on screen).
Channel F and Fairchild are names of their owners. This is an educational resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them or by The Henry Ford.
License: one teacher, for use with their own students. Please do not share, post publicly or resell.