Inventionland Course and Contest Leads to Product License for Middle School Students
- By Kate Lucariello
- 12/02/22
Two eighth-grade students in the Grove
City (PA) Middle School have garnered a product
license for their invention following completion of Inventionland’s
K–12
Innovation Curriculum course and winning both their
middle school and regional contests. The course, which Inventionland
describes as a “cross-discipline STEAM toolbox,” uses the same
proprietary
nine-step invention process the company follows in its
own commercial applications.
The
Innovation Curriculum is divided into elementary, middle, and high
school sections, with age-appropriate activities for various grades.
Students work in teams to develop a new product. Upon completion,
teams can enter their inventions in local, regional, and national
contests. Inventionland also helps schools to design and reconfigure
classrooms and underutilized spaces into “innovation
labs” that facilitate immersive learning.
In
Inventionland’s nine-step process, steps 1 to 3 focus on
discovering a problem and inventing ideas to solve it using STEAM
skills. In steps 4 to 6, students sketch and create concept models of
their invention. In steps 7 to 9, they make a working model, create
packaging, and develop a marketing presentation.
They
are then ready to enter their inventions in contests,
starting at the local level, with winners moving on to regional and
national levels, as the Grove City students did. Inventionland’s
founder, George Davison, impressed with the two girls’ invention,
contacted a product distribution company, who offered a licensing
agreement.
Visit
this page for more background on Inventionland’s history and its
education curriculum. See
a video about how Grove City Middle School implements the Innovation
Curriculum.
About the Author
Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.