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Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

Driving Question: What technologies helped launch the Industrial Revolution and how did they change life for people?

Explore the impacts of rapid industrialization on technological innovation and economic and social structures across the world. Innovations such as the railroad or the development of fossil fuels brought this revolution to more people, improving lives but also presenting challenges to a growing world.

Learning Objectives

  1. Evaluate how the Industrial Revolution changed human communities and societies during this era.
  2. Understand how innovations made possible by the Industrial Revolution changed the movement of goods and people.
  3. Use the historical thinking practice of contextualization to evaluate the Industrial Revolution.

Vocab Terms:

  • coal
  • factory
  • infrastructure
  • innovation
  • locomotive
  • profit
  • steam engine
STEP 1

Opener: Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

Teaching Tools

Looking for more on how to make the most of lesson beginnings and endings? The Openers and Closers Guide offers tips for using these quick activities effectively.

Check out these before and after images to draw conclusions about the impacts of the Industrial Revolution on Manchester, England.

STEP 2

Contextualizing History

Teaching Tools

This is your students’ introduction to the historical thinking skill of contextualization. The Contextualization One-Pager provides helpful background to support your teaching.

STEP 3

What Caused the Industrial Revolution?

Teaching Tools

The Industrial Revolution helped shape the modern world. Explore this blog post External link for a fresh take on it—and on other key moments of human-environment interaction.

Innovation played a key role in industrialization. Explore the technologies that made industrialization possible in the article and video, and then apply your understanding in the activity by examining the historical context that gave rise to industrialization.

When most people were farmers and had to walk or ride a horse to the next town, the position of the Sun was more important than knowing the exact time. Trains changed that.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 4

Before and After Images

Teaching Tools

The OER Project Differentiation Guide Locked  provides practical tips for adapting activities like this to meet the needs of your classroom.

How quickly did industrialization change things? These before and after images will give you a sense of the speed of transformation.

STEP 5

Closer: Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

You’ve learned about a lot of technologies in this lesson that transformed the world. Practice your claim making skills as you argue for the one you think was the most important.

Extension Materials
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The Industrial Revolution had an immense impact on people’s daily lives. Explore some of these different impacts with the resources below.
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Life in the Industrial Revolution

Exciting new inventions—including the ability to filter water—improved lives during the Industrial Revolution. But for those providing coal, which was the source of power for many of these innovations, the work was difficult and dangerous.

Making Clean Water External link

Clean water may seem basic today, but during the Industrial Revolution, Britain’s water was filled with sewage and even bodies. Steam engines helped turn that around.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.

Coal Miners External link

What was life like for the coal miners who fueled Britain’s industrialization? Men, women, and children lived, worked, and died in industrial England’s hazardous mines.