Making Kids Into “Makers”
The new annual Inventor’s Challenge prompts children to develop their creative problem-solving skills by building something to address a problem in their community.
In many traditional classroom settings, students do not spend a lot of time honing their problem-solving skills or considering how their work could help those around them. But a new program is encouraging them to do so outside of school. This spring, more than 10,000 young people in 17 countries participated in the Inventor’s Challenge, a contest that asks kids from kindergarten through high school to build something that addresses a problem in their school or community.
“We’re not trying to change schools,” says Mike McGalliard, the executive director of the Imagination Foundation, a nonprofit that sponsored the Imagination Challenge in collaboration with AT&T. “We’re trying to change culture so that creativity becomes a core social value. Kids learn best through play and through opportunities to pursue their curiosity through creative projects.”...