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Invention Convention & Invention PD

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I wanted to share an excellent opportunity that will allow the district, schools and educators to save funds – always an important factor! We have a free Professional Development Workshop this Saturday August 10th – it is being sponsored by the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation and Bright Young Minds Coalition. This will save the cost of training and the curriculum is free to use! It is a win-win for all for all of us! 

We have some spots open this Saturday for teachers or administrators to attend the Invention Convention Workshop. We have members of the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and the Invention Convention Worldwide Program onsite and conducting PD. 

Lots of exciting things going on in Florida and much improved resources and support for our state program since The Henry Ford American Museum of Innovation has taken over Invention Convention Worldwide. I look forward to our program and impact growing this 2019-2020 School Year. 

Please share within your network this will allow other educators, schools and districts to save dollars and an opportunity to launch the school year off with a creative and inventive mindset!! 

Just to clarify: 

1. Attendance at the Invention Convention Professional Development Workshop if free! 

2. Curriculum is free and mapped to Florida and National Standards and can be completed in 6-10 weeks in school, after school or as a club! 

3. Every educator that attends on August 10th will have their school’s program registration fee waived for the 2019-2020 school year!! AND there is not an entrance fee for students to participate in regional or state competitions. 

This is good news for educators, schools and districts – and especially the students who will have an opportunity to participate in Invention Education and Invention Convention!! 

Invention Education Advantages 

  • allows students to utilize their STEM and STEAM skills in real world applications
  • develops 21st Century Skills 
  • inspires creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership success
  • promotes problem solving and critical thinking
  • Invention Convention Curriculum & Invention Conventions are an excellent compliment to existing Engineering, Robotics, STEM or STEAM programs as well as can be used as a stand alone curriculum 

Please write to tracy@innovationworld.org with any questions. Reserve your seat now!!

Why do you need to support Invention & Entrepreneurship Education in schools?

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This middle school team has chosen to address gun violence in schools and has created a sensor that will disable guns as they enter schools. Their product is called Sentinel – AMAZING!

As Executive Director of Bright Young Minds Coalition my job is awesome! My days are spent bringing Invention & Entrepreneurship Education to students throughout the state of Florida. We take them through a 9 week journey through the 7 steps of the Invention Process in preparation for local, state and national invention conventions and contests. It is the most amazing experience to see what these young creative minds can come up with to solve a problem. I am completely blown away! I love having the opportunity to transform young minds, teaching them that they can do and become anything – anything is possible. They can become inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs. 

Check out some recent highlights:

83 Degrees Story on Inventor Community in Florida

83 Degrees Media Story on FLIC Inventors

FLIC 2018 Video

Bay News 9 Story on FLIC Inventor

Link to NICEE 2018 Video

We work with schools, teachers and students throughout the state of Florida, all schools, this includes public, private, charter, magnet or home school co-ops. We provide everything at no cost to the schools. This allows us to make a significant impact in Title 1, urban and rural areas and economically depressed areas. STEMIE Invention Education has above average female participation at 59% and an increase in minority participation at 37%. This will lead to more female and minority entrepreneurs, inventors and those working with STEM Skills. Our goal is to add 250 new schools to our network over the next year. We kick off Invention Season in October! We want to get our inventors for Invention Convention. 

We provide Professional Development training for the teachers, teacher stipends for the training, a supply budget for the students to help with prototyping, printing costs for signage, display boards and Inventor’s Journal to document the entire process. In addition, we supply the schools, teachers and students with STEMIE Invention & Entrepreneurship Curriculum, Tools, Videos, Resources and ongoing support throughout the school year. We offer an amazing program and ongoing support. The cost to support a student in Invention Education is less that $50 per student the impact per dollar invested or donated is unmatched with any other program offering in the school system design to teach STEM Skills, Life Skills, Soft Skills and Career Skills.  

The teachers are so excited to teach Invention Education, they are allowed to be creative and teach their students to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, creative, collaborative and how to communicate and share their ideas. 

And on the Education side, STEMIE Invention & Entrepreneurship Education can be part of almost any classroom, it is project based learning and maps back to standards in not only meeting a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) but also to Social Studies, Reading, Language Arts, the Arts and Financial Education and Entrepreneurship Education. Can you name one other curriculum that can be successfully used in so many ways? (In the classroom, as a club or elective, after school program or independent inventor)

It is very exciting to wake up every day and know that through Invention Education we can make a real impact. Every child is a natural born inventor, we want every child to have the opportunity to be an inventor once – twice even better! I have a 6th grader who has been inventing since the 4th grade. She has created 3 products in the assisted technologies space – designed to help people with disabilities. That is incredible!

By now you are asking yourself, “How can I get involved?’ “I want to be a part of this” and “What can I do?” And we are both very excited! It is really simple, we have several ways to get involved. We love volunteers and mentors; for events we need judges. We need people to LIKE, FOLLOW and SHARE us on Social Media – be an Ambassador push the #inventflorida movement! We can always use donations and sponsors – in kind or monetary to support our mission and help us reach our goals. For every five thousand dollars we raise we can add one new school to our network and that will impact hundreds of students. This is an investment that will keep giving year over year – teachers we train this year will be able to use that training with new students every year! The students that participate in Invention Education this year will likely invent again and will tell others about their inventions. Doubling, tripling, quadrupling – our impact year over year! 

Drop the mic! Now you know why we ALL need to support Invention & Entrepreneurship Education in schools. Our future and their future depends on it.

Are you ready to get started? Please call or text 305-753-5755 or email tracy@inventflorida.org