Posts Tagged educational resources
We hope you enjoyed this week’s experiences focused on Staying Curious. Were you inspired to create or invent something? Please share your story or photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation!
If you missed anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings and resources below. We hope that you will join us this upcoming week to explore new themes drawn from our Model i Learning Framework, focusing on how innovators Take Risks.
What We Covered This Week
How can we turn our questions into ideas, and our ideas into actions?
STEAM Stories
Our STEAM story of the week was I Have an Idea by Herve Tullet and then we learned about the many ways we use paper with a lesson from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots. Watch the here.
#InnovationNation Tuesdays
See this week's highlighted clips below:
We hope you enjoyed this week’s experiences focused on Being Empathetic. Were you inspired to show empathy? To create or invent? Please share your story or photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation!
If you missed anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings and resources below. We hope that you will join us this upcoming week to explore new themes drawn from our Model i Learning Framework, focusing on Stay Curious.
What We Covered This Week
How can empathy, or understanding the needs of others, help us solve problems
STEAM Stories
Join us for a reading of Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley and Cedella Marley and then learn about wood and fabric using a lesson from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots. Watch the video here.
#InnovationNation Tuesdays
See our Wright Brothers Cycle Shop segments here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
Join us for an Innovation Journey Live and learn how innovations in hearing and speech technologies provide accessibility options for many during our interview with Kristen Gallerneaux, Communication and Information Technology.
#THFCuratorChat
Get a feel for what Curator of Transportation Matt Anderson shared during our most recent #THFCuratorChat, highlighting our partners at AAA.
Kid Inventor Profile
In our Friday segment we will learn how empathy for others inspired this Invention Convention US Nationals winner to develop software to help doctors screen for cancer. This week we feature Vidya Srinivas, Invention Convention Michigan’s grand prize winner and first place winner in the 12th grade category at Nationals last year. Her invention, AutoImage is a cell-counting and identifying software that is intended to minimize the amount of time that researchers spend on manual labor during the cancer research process, enabling faster, more accurate, and more cost-effective cancer research. Watch video here.
Learn more below about how our Invention Convention Curriculum activities can to keep your child innovating here:
Resource Highlight: Innovate Curriculum
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips that assist parents in adapting its educational tools for implementation at home.
This week we are again highlighting a lesson from the Innovate Curriculum. Designed to accelerate core discipline performance, Innovate helps middle and high school students connect their subject matter to real-world applications through innovation understanding and skills development, unleashing every student’s potential to develop groundbreaking ideas. Students journey from learning the habits and actions of innovators to unleashing the innovator within.
Create your free account today to access four interactive courses featuring:
- Primary source digital artifacts from The Henry Ford’s Archive of American Innovation
- Dynamic lessons with real-life stories
- Learn-by-doing activities and interactive content that helps prepare students and their prototypes to participate in competitions
- Exclusive interviews with past and present visionaries
- Celebrity-led tours of today’s most exciting start-ups
- Facilitator guides that help educators and parents guide their students through the courses
Keep in mind that these courses were designed to be completed in a classroom setting, so feel free to adapt the courses for home use. These courses can be done on their own or in any order, but the recommended sequence is as follows:
INNOVATE 101: Inspire Our Future as an Innovative Thinker
Students learn about the unique qualities that make an innovator, and how innovative thinking can not only solve problems but create world-changing social transformation.
INNOVATE 102: Solve Our Problems
Students learn how innovators uncover insights, define problems, design prototypes and optimize solutions.
INNOVATE 103: Unleash Your Ideas as You Learn to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Students discover how to move ideas forward by identifying customers, what to do to protect their ideas, how to communicate with an audience and how to pitch to investors.
INNOVATE 104: Activate Your Potential
Students get to apply what they have learned and turn an idea into action. They will uncover an issue, come up with a solution, identify the users and create a unique prototype that they develop, showcase and pitch to others.
If your child is inspired to create an innovation of their own, check out Innovate 102, Lesson 2: Learning What People Need. Use the Innovate 102 facilitator’s guide and the tips below to guide your experience.
To prep for Lesson 2, you may want to first look at Innovate 102, Lesson 1: Uncovering a Need.
Begin by discussing what “innovation” means. You can use Innovate 101, Lesson 1 to help frame the conversation.
Spend some time talking about the Actions of Innovation and the Habits of an Innovator – which ones have you used before? Which ones are less familiar? See page 2.
Encourage your child to start keeping a “design journal” – see page 1 of the facilitator guide for more details.
Talk about why it is important to talk to people who will use your innovation.
Think about the difference between closed- and open-ended questions. Why are open-ended questions more valuable when trying to find out what people need?
In this lesson, entrepreneur Will Allen demonstrates the power of open-ended questions. Can your child think of times when they asked open-ended questions? Closed-ended questions? Was there a difference in the types of answers they received?
Practice asking open-ended questions with your child. Learning how to understand what people need is an important skill for all ages!
Parents and educators can learn more about Model i here.
Thanks to AAA Auto Club Group for sponsoring this week’s events.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s experiences focused on Power and Energy. Were you inspired to create or invent something? Please share your photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation!
If you missed anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings and resources below. We hope that you will join us this upcoming week to explore new themes drawn from our Model i Learning Framework, beginning with Be Empathetic.
What We Covered This Week
Power & Energy: How is power created?
STEAM Stories
Join us for a reading of Wind by Marion Dane Bauer and then learn about wood and metal using a lesson from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots. Watch the video here.
#Innovation Nation
Watch segments related to power and energy from The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
Join us for an Innovation Journey Live when Jessica Robinson, our Entrepreneur in Residence, and Matt Anderson, our Curator of Transportation, talk about electric and autonomous cars. Watch the video here.
Our Friday segment will be a little different this week as we hear from Attorney Michael “Max” Sneyd, an attorney at Kerr, Russell and Weber, PLC in Detroit, Michigan all about patents, copyrights and trademarks. This is a great opportunity for all of our invention convention participants to learn the difference between each, what you might need and what might not apply to your invention, what to consider when developing your invention, how to apply for a patent, copyright, or trademark, how long it takes, and how families can support their inventors in the application process. Watch the interview here.
Learn more below about how our Invention Convention Curriculum activities can to keep your child innovating.
Resource Highlight: Invention convention Curriculum
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips that assist parents in adapting its educational tools for implementation at home.
This week we are highlighting a lesson from the Invention Convention Curriculum. The program is open to students in grades K-12. The lessons teach students skills that will give young innovators the chance to design, build, and pitch an original invention to their peers and judges. Competitions are held at local or regional levels and those qualifying move on to state competition. State qualifiers can then compete at the Invention Convention U.S. Nationals held here at The Henry Ford.
Our Invention Convention curriculum takes young inventors through the complete process of inventing. The activities in our curriculum take young inventors through the seven steps of the invention process. These 7 steps provide the framework for the heart of the Invention Convention curriculum. The lessons are organized by step:
- Identifying
- Understanding
- Ideating
- Designing
- Building
- Testing
- Communicating
Entrepreneurship lessons are also added. We have designed the activities to build skills in invention and engineering while supporting the creation of your students’ very own inventions. You can learn more about the Invention Convention Curriculum Link here. Parents and educators can learn more about Model i here.
Janice Warju is Coordinator, Learning Content Development, at The Henry Ford.
Additional Readings:
- Made in America: Power- Maudslay Production Lathe, circa 1800
- Behind the Scenes with IMLS: Batteries Included
- Test Tube, "Edison's Last Breath," 1931
by Janice Warju, Invention Convention Worldwide, power, educational resources, innovation learning
We hope you enjoyed this week’s experiences focused on Information & Communication Technology. Were you inspired to create or invent something? Please share your photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation!
If you missed anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings and resources below. We hope that you will join us this upcoming week to explore Power & Energy.
What We Covered This Week
Information & Communication Technology: How can a problem be inspiration for finding a better way of doing things?
STEAM Stories
Join us for a reading of What Do You Do with an Problem? by Kobi Yamada and then learn about plastic and metal using a lesson from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots.Watch the video here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
Join us for an Innovation Journey Live when Diana Nucera shares how her organization, the Detroit Community Technology Project, is helping kids connect to their virtual learning experiences. Watch the video here.
Kid Inventor Profile
Alex Knoll, 15-year-old student from Idaho developed Ability App, a global app that will help people with disabilities and caregivers search for specific disability-friendly features at locations around the world. Explore these Invention Convention Curriculum activities to keep your child innovating. Watch the interview here.
Resource Highlight: Innovate for Tots
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips that assist parents in adapting its educational tools for implementation at home.
This week we are highlighting, Innovate for Tots. These interdisciplinary, hands-on activities are designed for curious preschoolers, and focus on themed materials that are experienced through storytelling, project-based learning, science, discovery, artifact viewing and home/neighborhood exploration.
Our goal is to provide standards-based learning opportunities introducing our littlest learners to the habits and actions of innovators and the language of innovation through our stories from history. Each lesson includes fine and gross motor skills, science, social studies, literacy and the arts to accomplish this goal. We explore materials used in artifacts from the vast collections of The Henry Ford, as well as our own homes. Our innovating tots will develop their understanding of materials and the ways we have used them, hopefully inspiring their desire to Stay Curious, Collaborate, Empathize, Uncover and Design the artifacts of the future.
The lessons are designed to provide tremendous flexibility. The various components can be completed indoors or out. We have designed them into series of five activities, divided into Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM), English, Language Arts and Literature (ELA/LIT), Social Studies and History (SS/HST), focused on one material or one combination of materials. Each includes the related artifacts from the collections at The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation which can be shown digitally as well as instructions, pictures, or links for projects. Additionally, A Family Connection provides the family an opportunity to participate in the learning and a coloring sheet are also attached to each material.
Each Innovate for Tots Lesson Plans for Toddler/Preschool teaches the following age-appropriate parts of our Model I – the Habits and Actions of Innovators:
Model I:
Help your tots practice the Habits of Innovators:
-Stay Curious: Ask questions like what, why, how
-Collaborate: Talk about helping, work together
-Learn from Failure: Talk about “trying again," what's another way to...
-Empathize: How did the characters in the stories feel? How might it make others feel
Help your tots practice the Actions of Innovators:
-Design: Make, build, and create
-Uncover: What do you see? (characteristic/properties); What problems does this material help us solve?
Parents and educators can learn more about Model I here.
communication, technology, Model i, innovation learning, educational resources
We hope you enjoyed this week’s experiences focused on agriculture and the environment. Were you inspired to create or invent something? Please share your photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation!
If you missed anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings and resources below. We hope that you will join us this upcoming week to explore Information and Communications Technology.
What We Covered This Week
Agriculture: How can we optimize planting and gardening to make the world a better place for everyone?
STEAM Stories
We read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert and then learned about seeds, leaves and flowers using a lesson from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots. Watch the video here.
#InnovationNation Tuesdays
See our agriculture segments here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
This week we welcomed guest innovator Farmer Melvin Parson! He shared the story of his “We the People Opportunity Farm and Center” and how he continues to optimize for the changing times. Watch the video here.
Kid Inventor Profile
Quill, a fifth grader from Iowa, invented the Hot Spot Chicken Insulating Cream to protect chickens from winter frostbite. Explore these Invention Convention Curriculum activities to keep your child innovating. Watch the video Quill’s video here.
Resource Highlight: Innovate Curriculum
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips that assist parents in adapting its educational tools for implementation at home.
This week we are highlighting another lesson from the Innovate Curriculum. Designed to accelerate core discipline performance, Innovate helps middle and high school students connect their subject matter to real-world applications through innovation understanding and skills development, unleashing every student’s potential to develop groundbreaking ideas. Students journey from learning the habits and actions of innovators to unleashing the innovator within.
Create your free account today to access four interactive courses featuring:
- Primary source digital artifacts from The Henry Ford’s Archive of American Innovation - Dynamic lessons with real-life stories
- Learn-by-doing activities and interactive content that helps prepare students and their prototypes to participate in competitions
- Exclusive interviews with past and present visionaries
- Celebrity-led tours of today’s most exciting start-ups
- Facilitator guides that help educators and parents guide their students through the courses.
Keep in mind that these courses were designed to be completed in a classroom setting, so feel free to adapt the courses for home use. These courses can be done on their own or in any order, but the recommended sequence is as follows:
INNOVATE 101: Inspire Our Future as an Innovative Thinker
Students learn about the unique qualities that make an innovator, and how innovative thinking can not only solve problems but create world-changing social transformation.
INNOVATE 102: Solve Our Problems
Students learn how innovators uncover insights, define problems, design prototypes and optimize solutions.
INNOVATE 103: Unleash Your Ideas as You Learn to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Students discover how to move ideas forward by identifying customers, what to do to protect their ideas, how to communicate with an audience and how to pitch to investors.
INNOVATE 104: Activate Your Potential
Students get to apply what they’ve learned and turn an idea into action. They’ll uncover an issue, come up with a solution, identify the users and create a unique prototype that they develop, showcase and pitch to others.
If your child is inspired to create an innovation of their own, check out Innovate 102, Lesson 2: Learning What People Need. Use the Innovate 102 facilitator’s guide and the tips below to guide your experience.
- To prep for Lesson 2, you may want to first look at Innovate 102, Lesson 1: Uncovering a Need.
- Begin by discussing what “innovation” means. You can use Innovate 101, Lesson 1 to help frame the conversation.
- Spend some time talking about the Actions of Innovation and the Habits of an Innovator – which ones have you used before? Which ones are less familiar? See page 2.
- Encourage your child to start keeping a “design journal” – see page 1 of the facilitator guide for more details.
- Talk about why it is important to talk to people who will use your innovation.
- Think about the difference between closed- and open-ended questions. Why are open-ended questions more valuable when trying to find out what people need?
- In this lesson, entrepreneur Will Allen demonstrates the power of open-ended questions. Can your child think of times when they asked open-ended questions? Closed-ended questions? Was there a difference in the types of answers they received?
- Practice asking open-ended questions with your child. Learning how to understand what people need is an important skill for all ages!
Olivia Marsh is Program Manager, Educator Professional Development, at The Henry Ford.
by Olivia Marsh, innovation learning, educational resources, environmentalism, agriculture
We hope you enjoyed last week’s experiences all about Social Transformation. Were you inspired to create or invent something? Please share your photos with us on social media using #WeAreInnovationNation. If you missed the anything from our series this past week, check out the recordings by clicking on the links below. We hope that you will join us this week to explore our theme of Agriculture & the Environment.
What We Covered This Week
Theme: Social Transformation: How can ideas – big and small – have an impact on our world?
STEAM Stories
For our reading this week we shared What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamadav. (Thanks to Compendium Books for letting us share the book with our fans and followers.) You can try our hands-on activity ideas from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots, too. Watch the video here.
#InnovationNation Tuesdays
See our social transformation segments here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
In this week’s Innovation Journey Live we learned how Henry Ford’s Model T changed the way people live, work and vacation. Watch the video here.
#THFCuratorChat
This week Donna Braden, our Curator of Public Life, explored the diner and its impact on American culture. See highlights from her chat in this blog post.
Kid Inventor Profile
Meet Charlotte from Idaho, inventor of the Emotional Emojis board game. In this unusual time, kids are helping other kids get through. Charlotte’s invention helps kids (and adults) express their feelings with a fun game. Then explore some Invention Convention Curriculum activities to keep your child innovating. Watch the video here.
Resource Highlight: Innovate Curriculum
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips that assist parents in adapting its educational tools for implementation at home. Last week we highlighted our Model i Primer+., a series of five lesson plans that give student opportunities to practice the Actions of Innovation and the Habits of an Innovator.
This week we are highlighting the Innovate Curriculum. Designed to accelerate core discipline performance, Innovate helps middle and high school students connect their subject matter to real-world applications through innovation understanding and skills development, unleashing every student’s potential to develop groundbreaking ideas. Students journey from learning the habits and actions of innovators to unleashing the innovator within.
Create your free account today to access four interactive courses featuring:
- Primary source digital artifacts from The Henry Ford’s Archive of American Innovation
- Dynamic lessons with real-life stories
- Learn-by-doing activities and interactive content that helps prepare students and their prototypes to participate in competitions.
- Exclusive interviews with past and present visionaries
- Celebrity-led tours of today’s most exciting start-ups
- Facilitator guides that help educators and parents guide their students through the courses. Keep in mind that these courses were designed to be completed in a classroom setting, so feel free to adapt the courses for home use. These courses can be done on their own or in any order, but the recommended sequence is as follows:
INNOVATE 101: Inspire Our Future as an Innovative Thinker
Students learn about the unique qualities that make an innovator, and how innovative thinking can not only solve problems but create world-changing social transformation.
INNOVATE 102: Solve Our Problems
Students learn how innovators uncover insights, define problems, design prototypes and optimize solutions.
INNOVATE 103: Unleash Your Ideas as You Learn to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Students discover how to move ideas forward by identifying customers, what to do to protect their ideas, how to communicate with an audience and how to pitch to investors.
INNOVATE 104: Activate Your Potential
Students get to apply what they’ve learned and turn an idea into action. They’ll uncover an issue, come up with a solution, identify the users and create a unique prototype that they develop, showcase and pitch to others.
If your child is inspired to create an innovation of their own, check out Innovate 104: Activate Your Potential. Use the Innovate 104 facilitator’s guide and the tips below to guide your experience.
- Begin by discussing what “innovation” means, especially when creating something new leads people to change how they act and behave.
- Spend some time talking about the Actions of Innovation and the Habits of an Innovator – which ones have you used before? Which ones are less familiar? See page 13.
- Encourage your child to start keeping a “design journal” – see page 8 of the facilitator guide for more details.
- There is no set timeline for creating an innovation or invention. The process can span a few days or several months.
- Learning from failure is an important part of innovation – no one gets it right the first time! Encourage your child to keep trying new ways of doing things.
- Have your child think about how they would pitch their ideas to someone else. They can present their ideas to their families and can even share their pitch on a video call with friends.
Welcome to week two of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Learning Virtual Series. Were you inspired to create or invent something this week? We want to see what you’re making! Please share your photos with us on #WeAreInnovationNation. If you missed the series last week, check out the recordings by clicking on the links at the bottom of this post. We hope that you will join us this week to explore our theme of Design & Making. Keep reading for more details about what’s in store.
What We Covered This Week
Theme: Design & Making — How do we collaborate and work with others?
STEAM Stories
This week is all about sand and glass. Join us for a reading of The Sand Castle Lola Built by Megan Maynor and then get hands-on activity ideas from our early childhood curriculum, Innovate for Tots. Register here.
#InnovationNation Tuesdays
See our design and making segments here.
Innovation Journeys Live!
How do artists use glass to create delicate works of art? Watch the story of studio glass unfold in a live innovation journey. Practice making your own journey using the Model i Primer activity. Register here.
#THFCuratorChat: Design & Making
Learn more about the evolution of luggage design from Curator of Charles Sable.
Kid Inventor Profile
Listen to serial inventor Lino as he discusses his three inventions: Kinetic Kickz, the String Ring and the Sole Solution. Then explore some Invention Convention Curriculum activities to keep your child innovating. Register here.
Resource Spotlight: Model i Primer+ Design Lesson
In our continued efforts to help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is providing helpful tips to help parents adapt its educational tools for implementation at home. Last week we highlighted our Model i Primer, a facilitator’s guide that introduces the Actions of Innovation and Habits of an Innovator through fun, learn-by-doing activities.
This week we are highlighting the Model i Primer+. These five lesson plans, named after the Actions of Innovation, are designed as opportunities for students to practice the Actions and Habits introduced in the Model i Primer. Each lesson includes age-appropriate versions for grades 2-5, 6-8 and 9-12. In keeping with this week’s theme of Design & Making, we’ll focus on the Design lesson today. All you need for the lesson are some colored pencils or markers and paper.
We define designing as brainstorming solutions to a defined problem or need. This is one of the trickiest parts of any innovation journey for all inventors. In trying to solve a problem or need, kids can feel overwhelmed by a blank page, or they can get stuck on unfocused ideas. In order to help kids navigate these challenges, the Design lesson introduces two brainstorming techniques: the Zero Drafting technique and the Wishing technique.
Zero Drafting is an ideation technique that encourages kids to get their initial creative solutions out of their heads and on to paper, using information they already know. The Wishing technique encourages kids to frame solutions as wishes, making them more comfortable sharing ideas without pressure of producing real ideas. Combining Zero Drafting with Wishing, students focus on features of their creative ideas to trigger new, more realistic concepts to develop. By ideating feasible concepts, kids will be able to choose one solution to develop further.
When trying the Design lesson in your home, consider these adaptations for each of the lesson’s three parts:
Prep Activities: Begin by suggesting a problem that your kids may want to solve. This can be something simple, like a problem they have during their morning routine or always growing out of their shoes.
Core Activities: Use the Zero Drafting and Wishing techniques to brainstorm fantastical solutions, and then analyze these ideas to generate new, more realistic concepts. You can choose to just use one of the techniques. Brainstorm solutions along with your child.
Follow-Up Project: Have your child pick one of the solutions they came up with, and have them begin to write or draw ideas about how they would make that solution come true. You might be surprised by how your child begins to solve their own problems.
Take it further: Ask your child what Actions and Habits they practiced.
Please share your experience and follow others as they engage in our digital learning opportunities using the hashtag #WeAreInnovationNation.
Olivia Marsh is Program Manager, Educator Professional Development, at The Henry Ford.
by Olivia Marsh, Model i, educational resources, making, design, innovation learning
To help parents, students and educators during these times of uncertainty, The Henry Ford is unleashing its educational tools for people everywhere. While our venues are temporarily closed, access to our digital learning content is wide open. To help you connect with these tools and resources, we’re launching an Innovation Learning Virtual Series starting Monday, March 30. It will highlight our digital learning resources for all ages, including live engagement and hands-on activities.
Look for a new blog post every Friday to check out the theme and virtual experiences planned for the coming week and to find a spotlight on one of our resources. These 20- to 30-minute virtual experiences will take place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
We believe innovation can be something completely new, but it also can be a significant improvement to an existing product, process or service. To be innovative, the contribution must address a true need and change the way we behave.
Drawing on the authentic objects and real-life stories we have collected, our Model i Innovation Learning Framework provides an interdisciplinary approach to learning based on the Habits of an Innovator and Actions of Innovation. These habits and actions come together, expressing any unique innovation journey. This framework underpins every innovation learning resource that we will showcase in the coming weeks.
What’s Coming Up Next Week?
The theme for the week of March 30 is MOBILITY. How do you get to where you’re going?
STEAMStorytime
Monday, March 30 at 10 a.m.
Pre-K-Grade 2
Join us as we read How Trains Work and learn how to access a lesson from our early childhood curriculum,Innovate for Tots that includes a lesson plan, activities, reading lists and coloring pages of The Henry Ford's artifacts.
Registration Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ha6Vus7nQ8uz-gvqEHJTmA
Innovation Journeys Live!
Wednesday, April 1 at 1 p.m.
Grades 3-12
Ever wondered how our Allegheny Steam Locomotive came to be? Hear and see the story unfold in a live innovation journey.Practice making your own journey using the Model i Primer activity.
Registration Link:https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BPY_gTGnRwuLh25Gqib_QQ
Supportive Resources
"What if a Locomotive Powered by Fire and Water Could Haul More Freight Than Ever Before?"
1884 Locomotive Roundhouse and 1941 Allegheny
Kid InventorDay
Friday, April 3 at Noon
All Ages
Hear from kid inventor Ariana as she discusses her face mask invention. Then explore some Invention Convention Curriculum activities to keep your child innovating.
Registration Link:https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eHUdp6t1S4Si4wqBY84oPw
Resource Spotlight: Model i Primer
This week’s resource spotlight focuses on our Model i Primer, a facilitator’s guide that introduces the Actions of Innovation and Habits of an Innovator through fun, learn-by-doing activities that are easily implemented at home. You can download the free Model i Primer here.
How do I use the Primer?
Page 4: Begin by discussing what innovation means with your children. What everyday household objects could you change or adapt?
Page 5: Show your children the Model i framework, and talk about the Actions of Innovation and Habits of an Innovator. What do they mean? Which ones do they already use? Which ones do they want to work on? Work together to learn and practice them — consider documenting your progress in an innovation journey.
Page 6: Send your kids on a digital scavenger hunt. How many items can they find? Are they inspired by any of the innovators’ stories they found? Why?
Pages 9-10: Get inspired by reading the innovation journey of the Wright brothers, and then create your own. Have your children ever invented something? Solved a problem? Have them grab some markers and paper to draw their own journeys.
Check out the links to The Henry Ford’s digital collections and resources that are embedded in the primer, including digitized artifacts, Innovation Nation video clips and stories written by our expert curators.
Feel free to share your experience and follow others as they engage in our digital learning opportunities using the hashtag #WeAreInnovationNation.
Did you find these resources of value? Consider making a donation to The Henry Ford.
Model i, COVID 19 impact, educational resources, innovation learning
Launching today from The Henry Ford, Innovate Curriculum helps students connect core subjects like STEAM, social studies and English to real-world applications through an interdisciplinary, hands-on online curriculum that accelerates 21st century skills development.
Innovate Curriculum leverages primary sources of The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation, an unparalleled collection of 26 million artifacts that sheds light on the way people have innovated across 300 years of history.
innovation learning, education, childhood, educational resources
“I was angry at the world, but The Henry Ford changed my life. Every time I felt like giving up, the people here have encouraged me to do better. Because they saw something in me I couldn’t see for myself.” - Sylvia Maddox, 19 years old. Graduate of the Youth Mentorship Program, June 2019
“Celebration” was a word that echoed through the Youth Mentorship Program office frequently over the 2018/2019 school year, and with good cause. Going into its 30th year of existence next year, the YMP celebrated not only the accomplishments of 14 student participants, but four graduates; Ann Odom of Tinkham Educational Center in January, and Natalie Wilkie of Wayne Memorial High School, Sylvia Maddox and Jada Shorter of Tinkham Educational Center in June. All four graduates were accepted to colleges of their choice prior to graduation and are preparing to begin this upcoming fall.
The Youth Mentorship Program, a direct partnership between The Henry Ford and the Wayne-Westland Community School District, gives high school students the chance to earn additional credits and life experience by spending the second half of each school day working with a full-time employee of The Henry Ford, who volunteers to serve as a mentor. People learn in different ways and normal schooling isn’t for everyone; the YMP provides an atmosphere where students can succeed in an environment different from the traditional classroom. When the students graduate, they leave with strong communication and interpersonal skills, responsibility, and the awareness that they can succeed, reflecting the goal of the YMP to provide positive changes in young lives. This past year students have participated in placements at the William Ford Barn, Firestone Farm, Pottery Shop, Glass Shop, Call Center, and Institutional Advancement, Photography, and Food Services departments.
Over the past two years, with the assistance of our committed and generous donors, we have expanded the framework of YMP to increase educational and engagement opportunities for our students specifically catered to their interests. Our students have participated in campus tours of local colleges, with career guest speakers in employment fields of their interest, and Employment Boost workshops where they are thoroughly trained in resume writing and job interview skills. The YMP aims to ease the transition of life after high school for our students, and these new opportunities assist whether our students are heading to college, a school of trade, or the workforce.
Thirty years is an incredible feat for a program such as the YMP. The longevity of this program is a result of the strong partnership between The Henry Ford and the Wayne-Westland Community School District and their overwhelming commitment to student success. A phrase we hear time after time from present and past students is how the YMP is like a second family and further, home. We are incredibly honored to serve the students of the Wayne-Westland community and be a part of their journeys. The past 30 years of YMP has had a huge impact on not only the students it serves, but The Henry Ford as a whole. We look forward to seeing what the next 30 years bring!
Emily Koch is Program Director of the Youth Mentorship Program at The Henry Ford. The Youth Mentorship Program at The Henry Ford is made possible thanks to our partners at the Comerica Charitable Foundation and the Applebaum Family Compass Fund.
Michigan, school, educational resources, childhood, education, by Emily Koch
