Coca Cola and Our Unit Question

In our technology class, we were each given different inventions to research and study to help us answer our unit question, which is, “How do inventors come up with their ideas and create inventions?”. So far we have been handed out a worksheet with some information on our topic and exercises to complete. After accomplishing this task, we had to come up with an adequate amount of questions relevant to our topic that we could find the answers for on the web. These questions and answers are all displayed on our blogs. Our last task is to create a PowerPoint, essay, or video to show the class how our inventor was able to come up with an idea and invent something.

My topic that was chosen is Coca Cola. As you may find out, Coca Cola was invented by Dr. John Pemberton in his backyard by mixing cocaine and caffeine-rich kola nuts. Considering that he was a pharmacist, he wanted to create a medicine in the form of a drink. After hearing that cocaine helped digestion, as well as many other ailments, he knew that he wanted to use this drug as one of his main ingredients. In his backyard in 1886, he put cocaine and caffeine-rich kola nuts into a kettle and created the invention known as Coca Cola.

Some inventions may be trial and error, but Dr. John Pemberton knew that he wanted to create a medicine in the drink form. By having a goal, he set out to invent Coca Cola without knowing the huge success it was to have in years later. Referring back to our unit question, which is “How do inventors come up with their ideas and create inventions?”, we can see that inventors have a general idea of what kind of invention they want to invent. Once they know what they would like to create, they set out to research all the possibilities that could help them invent their invention; in this case it happened to be cocaine that Dr. John Pemberton wanted to include.


Citations:

Bellis, Mary. "The History of Coca Cola." About.Com: Inventors. Web. Feb 2010. http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/coca_cola.htm>.

"John Stith Pemberton." The New Georgia Encyclopedia. 14/5/2004. Web. Feb 2010. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2747>.

"The Chronicle of Coca Cola." The Coca Cola Company. Web. Feb 2010. http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/chronicle_birth_refreshing_idea.html>.

"John Stith Pemberton." Business Heroes. Web. Feb 2010. http://www.cocaine.org/coca-cola/index.html>.

"Coke Lore." The Coca Cola Company. Web. Feb 2010. http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html>.

"Heritage Timeline." The Coca Cola Company. Web. Feb 2010. http://heritage.coca-cola.com/>.

ESLlibrary.com. Coke. Red River Press Inc., 2007.


Test (to grade my poster afterwards):

1) Is the poster neat?

2) Is it colorful and attractive?

3) Does my poster include the inventor and invention?


4) Does my poster answer the unit question? (How do inventors come up with their ideas and create inventions?)

5) Does it describe how Dr. John Pemberton created Coca Cola?

6) Are pictures included?

7) It doesn’t have to much information to make it boring, but has the right amount to keep everybody’s attention?


8) Does my poster have a title?

9) Does my poster include important questions and their answers that the audience would like to know?

10) Is the poster detailed and relevant to the project?