Prepare students for the jobs of the future

Inventiveness can be developed

Our framework’s success is due to Lemelson-MIT’s unique emphasis on helping students learn how to identify problems in their own lives and communities that can benefit from a technological solution. Discovering challenges that matter to them personally transforms skeptics into STEM enthusiasts. Seventeen patents awarded to participating student teams speaks to the effectiveness of our framework!

Problem identification, just like problem solving, is a skill that must be practiced early and often and can be learned by students of all ages, from varied backgrounds, and with diverse skill sets.

As students engage in the iterative and recursive process of invention they develop deep content-area and technical knowledge, as well as social-emotional, teamwork and communication skills. Through repeated exposure to the process, students craft increasingly sophisticated solutions to real-world problems.

Invention Education Matters

The STEM ecosystem in the United States currently lacks diversity. We’re committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, while prioritizing work with young women and Black, indigenous, Latinx and other people of color, in order to remedy historic inequalities in STEM representation. Our research offers evidence that our creative, transdisciplinary, problem-solving approach helps students of all backgrounds develop interest, confidence and capabilities in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as entrepreneurship.