Necessity is the mother of invention.

In literacy today we read a poem about how writing began, from notches, tallies, tokens (to do with collecting taxes) to the written word. One verse started with "Necessity, it's often said, is the mother of invention". The saying  "necessity is the mother of invention" is generally attributed to Plato but there is nothing in his written works to show this. It emerged in the English language in the 17th Century.

Once we had discussed the meaning of the saying we explored how it linked with our central idea " The form and material of an object affect its use". We are still thinking about it.

Have a look at some of these pictures of objects. Can you and your family think about why they were invented? Why was the object made in that form? Why is it made from that material? Post your comments below?