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How Four Discoveries Changed Lives is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on the causes and effects of four inventions, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.His.14.3-5. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 4 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

How Four Discoveries Changed Lives

D2.His.14.3-5

NameDate

Read each information text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the information text, then answer the questions.

Cyrus McCormick and the Reaper

An information text written for this worksheet. In the early 1800s, farmers cut ripe wheat by hand with a curved blade called a sickle or a scythe. Wheat must be harvested quickly once it is ripe, so a farm family could only plant as much as they could cut in a few weeks. In 1831, Cyrus McCormick showed a reaper on his family's farm in Virginia. Jo Anderson, a man enslaved on the farm, helped with the work, but the records say little about what he did. Pulled by a horse, the machine cut the wheat as it moved across the field. With a reaper, a few workers could harvest far more wheat in a day than many workers could by hand. In 1847 McCormick opened a factory in Chicago, close to the prairie farms. Farmers on the wide prairies of the Midwest began to plant much bigger fields, and fewer people were needed for farm work.

  1. 1. How did farmers cut wheat before the reaper?
  2. 2. Why did Midwest farmers begin to plant much bigger fields?
  3. 3. How did the reaper change the number of people working on farms?
2.Read the information text, then answer the questions.

Louis Daguerre and the First Photographs

An information text written for this worksheet. Before 1839, the only way to keep a picture of a person or a place was to draw or paint it, which took a skilled artist many hours. Louis Daguerre, a French artist, worked for years on a way to fix an image made by light onto a metal plate. In 1839 the French government announced his method, called the daguerreotype, and soon made it free for people to use. Within a few years, photography studios opened in cities in Europe and the United States. For the first time, ordinary families could have pictures of themselves. Historians and newspaper artists could now work from real pictures of faces and places from events, not only drawings.

  1. 1. How did photography help people who study history?
  2. 2. In what year was the method announced?
  3. 3. Why did ordinary families rarely have pictures of themselves before 1839?

LessonPrint · D2.His.14.3-5 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — How Four Discoveries Changed Lives

Set 4. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. By hand, with a curved blade called a sickle or a scythe. 2. With a reaper, a few workers could harvest far more wheat in a day. 3. Fewer people were needed for farm work.
  2. 2.1. They can see real faces and places from events, not only drawings. 2. 1839. 3. A picture had to be drawn or painted by a skilled artist, which took many hours.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to D2.His.14.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.