Academy of Applied Science
Young Inventors Program
from MEANT TO INVENT! TEACHER GUIDE
The New Hampshire Young Inventors' Program is a positive approach to helping students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills by inviting them to invent solutions to everyday problems.
The invention process provides an opportunity for all students to participate and be successful. All children can identify problems in their homes or neighborhoods. Almost every day of their lives they will face at least one problem. Some examples of real-life problems, identified and solved by students, are: an unmade bed, a dog that eats the cat food, and a grandmother with a broken leg that must be elevated when she sits.
A unit on inventive thinking, which includes the production of an original invention, is limited only by the imagination of the teachers and students. You might ask, "with everything else I have to teach, why take the time for inventing?" Research has shown that inventing will:
--enhance self-image
--stimulate and foster creativity
--relate the scientific method to real life
--fire up the inventive spirit in our culture
--develop the essential skills of logical thinking, creative problem solving, intellectual risk-taking, and communication
Students will also:
--solve actual problems
--develop higher-level thinking skills
--use creative and critical thinking skills
--use library and other research skills
--experience success and increased self-esteem
--learn to document the inventive-thinking process
--produce an original invention and receive recognition for participating in the invention process.
Academy of Applied Science. Meant to Invent! Teacher Guide (1997). Published by Academy by Applied Science - $21.95 (grades K - 8)
Other Resources:
Taylor, Barbara. Be an Inventor (1987). Published by Harcourt, Brace and Co. Hardcover - $12.00 (grades 3-7)
Promising Practices in Mathematics & Science Education, US Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, US Government Printing Office, 1994.