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Tomorrow’s Intellectual Property Leaders — Acting Like Children

Do you know any young inventors? Would you like to foster their creative minds?

 

My kids are always coming up with ideas so I just signed them up for Camp Invention. Its a week-long class to promote the spirit of innovation in kids entering grades 1-6. They offer four programs that combine science, technology, engineering and math disguised as fun activities. The classes are offered nationwide during the summer.

 

The Create program has several modules. In the first module, Problem Solving on Planet ZAK, the kids imagine they have just landed on another planet and problem-solve how to stay safe, nourished and rebuild their spaceship with common items. The Saving Sludge City module places the kids in a polluted city and they need to figure out how to clean it up and prevent it from happening again through green inventions. In another module, I Can Invent: Edisons Workshop, they get to build their own invention just like Thomas Edison.

 

These programs are organized by Invent Now, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1973. Their mission is to recognize, encourage and inspire future generations of inventors.

 

For more information visit www.campinvention.org and www.invent.org.

 

So… I recommend we all take a short break from our various professional roles within the world of intellectual property management, and help direct either your kids or someone else’s kids toward a program like these. You may know of others. Feel free to add them in the comment section — this is not intended to be an advertisement for any one program.

 

Perhaps, though, while we’re teaching our kids all sorts of things that will help them grow into responsible adults, we can also remember to re-discover that natural sense of wonder and creativity that they possess. Isn’t that as important in most of our jobs, as well as in other aspects of our lives, as a well-disciplined approach?

 

– S.M.