Directions: Many technological inventions represent obvious breakthroughs and are instantly hailed as important innovations. Other inventions take years to develop and are so slowly introduced to us that we hardly think of them as additional improvements at all.

One example of little (but big), tiny (but enormous) inventive changes can be seen in the evolution of soft drink containers. At first, soft drinks came only in bottles. The invention of cans was seen as an inventive improvement, but people still needed an opener. So the next inventive improvement was the pull top; however, then there arose unforeseen problems with the sharp edges and litter. The latest pull tops are less dangerous and now stay on the cans, but people still have an empty can to get rid of when they’re done. What will the next container improvement be? How about sugar-coated, edible cans?

Using the Text Editor, answer the following questions:
Think about an item you use every day. How can it be improved?
What would you do to make it better? What materials would you need to do this?
Why does this item need improvement and how do your ideas help improve it?