Bring creativity and innovation to life with this engaging KS3 History lesson exploring the enquiry question: Why did inventions make us see the world differently after 1870?

Students discover how the Industrial Revolution’s second wave of inventions — including electricity, photography, the telephone, and motion pictures — transformed how people lived, communicated, and imagined modern life. From Thomas Edison’s light bulb (1879) to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone (1876), this lesson helps students understand how science, art, and technology reshaped Victorian Britain and beyond.

Use this lesson to help KS3 students explore how the Industrial Revolution entered a second phase of global transformation after 1870. It builds causation, chronology, and literacy skills while encouraging creativity and cross-curricular links with art, science, and technology.

See my shop for more KS3 Industrial Revolution lessons, including enquiries on invention, poverty, socialism, and the changing lives of workers and children.