Supporting Question
Why does Elijah McCoy’s story matter?
For the formative performance task, use the sources to answer the following questions:
What are the important events in this person’s life? What emotions did this person experience throughout their life?
What did this person invent? What other inventions have been done in this area?
What do we know about the biases this person faced and how they responded? How did their responses compare to other people of their time?
How much—if at all—did the person’s life change after their inventions? Did they receive credit for their invention? Did they profit from it?
In what ways did this person address social issues of their day?
Featured Sources
Source A
U.S. Patent 129,843, “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines,” 1872
Source B
U.S. Patent 614,307, "Oil Cup," 1898
Source C
Elijah McCoy Biography: Black Inventors in History Mini-Documentary, Fresberg Cartoon, 2020.
Alternative Source C
Elijah McCoy: Stories of Courage - Episode 3, New Hampshire Department of Education, 2022.
Source D
U.S. Patent 150,876, "Ironing-Tables," 1874
Source E
U.S. Design Patent 31,549, “Lawn Sprinkler,” 1899
Source F
U.S. Patent 1,127,789, “Tread for Tires,” 1915
Source G
All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine, Monica Kulling and Bill Slavin, 2013
Alternative Source G
The Real McCoy: The Life of an African-American Inventor
by Wendy Towle (Author) and Will Clay (Illustrator)
Source H
How a Steam Locomotive Works, Nashville Steam, 2022.
STEM Extension Activity
All Aboard "The Real McCoy": How Elijah McCoy Changed Transportation, Smithsonian Learning Lab
Mathematics +1 Age Levels Middle School (13 to 15 years old), High School (16 to 18 years old)
Along with learning about Elijah McCoy, students will cover the application of constant rates of change, and exponential growth. To complete this lesson, students will need to be familiar with the concept of graphing and will leave with a better understanding of formulating linear and exponential equations.