So, you want to help kids change the world? NewsHour Classroom teachers are giving 'invention education' a try.
It's the second year of our Invention Education Teacher Fellowship, and we are joined by 23 educators from all different subject matter and grades who are coming together to teach the invention process. Invention education uses a project-based learning approach to take students through the steps of the invention process — from identifying a problem to designing and testing it out to sharing, or if they are feeling entrepreneurial, marketing it to others!
Ponderosa Pottery LLC via Etsy
Think about the smartphone or computer you are using to read this article (including the screen, the case, the keys — the stickers?!) along with the mug of coffee you are drinking out of (along with its handle — maybe even a special handle, if it's meant to help a person with a disability) and everything else you see around you! Someone or likely a group of inventors invented that!
At our first meeting, we had guests Leigh Estabrooks from Lemelson-MIT, an organization where students spend a whole year working on a new invention, and Prof. Deborah Gilbert of Modesto Junior College, who taught the invention process to her English students — yes, English students!
Estabrooks and Gilbert discussed how to get started teaching kids that they can be inventors, what counts as invention, and how teachers in all subjects — from STEM to the humanities and beyond — can encourage their students to be inventors.
Sounds pretty awesome, right? We'd love to hear your comments or any questions. Interested in joining our Invention Education Teacher Network? No experience needed! Write Luke at lgerwe@newshour.org.
You can watch the full session here, or keep reading to view selected clips.
Lemelson MIT's Leigh Estabrooks on what invention education does for students (44 seconds)
Modesto Junior College English Professor Deborah Gilbert on why the humanities are central to invention (56 seconds)
West Virginia teacher Kevin Warfield on inventing for a problem (2m:49s)
Advice for non-STEM teachers in invention education (2m:02s)
Tennessee teacher Tracy Cooper on getting started in invention ed (2m:12s)
Assistive devices for those with disabilities and fashion design's role (in order: Classroom's Vic Pasquantonio, Invention Fellow Kevin Warfield of West Virginia and Invention Fellow Angela King of Mass. (1m:32s)
For more lessons and content related to invention education, see this page.
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