HOW CAN WE INSPIRE NEW INNOVATORS?

How can we inspire new innovators?   Design Challenges one of the most powerful ways.   There’s a growing body of wonderful design challenges out there, invented and improved by educators, innovators, creative parents and kids.   I’m collecting, some of the best design challenges, and posting a few here.


Take a look, and try some out yourself!  Design Challenges are a terrific way for people to learn how to innovate through creative problem solving.  Some challenges are whimsical (like building a working cardboard bicycle);  some address critical, real-world issues (like bringing clean water to a desert village.)

Design Process
Engineers and design/communications people have both evolved design processes to aid problem clarification and resolution.  Brief info and links to these processes follow.
The design/communications design process  — sometimes called “design thinking” –  has particular strength in problem identification and brainstorming.   Engineering design processes are great on careful design, prototyping, creation, testing, and improving.   Put both together for a terrific and comprehensive problem solving system.

.Engineering Design Processes

• Engineering design for kids from The Works: http://www.theworks.org/fb/teachers/engineering_design_process.html
• there are several other important ones . . . links to come.

Design Thinking, etc.

• 6 point 2 an innovation lab (good innovation process)  http://sixpointtwo.net/
• crash course in design thinking:  http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/