2005 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams site-visits

InvenTeams banner
Originally uploaded by Joshua Schuler.

On January 25, I began site-visits of the 2005 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams. To date, my travels have brought me to eleven states, where I've met terrific educators, involved parents and supportive school administrators, seen the diversity in our nation's public schools (all of this year's InvenTeams are from public schools) and eaten some great, regional foods. Most importantly, however, the site-visits have allowed me to meet and spend time with some amazing young people enthusiastically working on challenging invention projects.


At each school, I gave a presentation that touched on the legacy of Jerome Lemelson, the missions of the other members of The Lemelson Foundation family, and the history of the Lemelson-MIT Program and InvenTeams. I made a point of pitching MIT, MITE2S and NCIIA and suggested that they present their project to classes at their school and other schools, the PTA/PTSA, School Board and local government bodies. For fun (and learning), I took the students through several Invention Statement-related exercises that should help them focus their project efforts.


Nearly all of the InvenTeams have at least one early physical prototype of their invention and are running tests and experiments to help them finalize their design. Although most teams have received some media attention by this time, all would benefit from greater exposure.

I am encouraged by what I've seen and hope the continued expansion of Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams will bring the opportunity to invent to even more high school students in the years to come!


The next few blog entries will detail my site-visits.