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Gr 2–5—As a child, Lonnie Johnson was a "tinkerer," or an avid collector of pieces and parts—all things that were considered scrap but that to Johnson were perfectly ripe for new applications. Early projects included rockets, a robot, and a powerful sound system for parties. Johnson's engineering degree took him to NASA, where he worked on the Galileo orbiter and probe. What Johnson really wanted to do, however, was build his own inventions. When trying to find an environmentally friendly solution to refrigerator and air-conditioning cooling systems, h...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

From childhood, African American inventor Johnson was a tinkerer: "Lonnie loved building and creating. Ideas for inventions just kept on flowing." We learn about how young Lonnie made model rockets-and rocket fuel ("When it caught fire in the kitchen, Lonnie's mom didn't make him stop. She just sent him to work outside")-and how in 1968 the robot he built won first place at a science fair held at the University of Alabama, "where only five years earlier, African American students hadn't even been allowed." We l...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Barton follows African American inventor Johnson, from his childhood tinkering through winning first place at a 1968 science fair, attending Tuskegee Institute, ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More