Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams

This morning it’s time for live blogging.  Don Domes, an InvenTeams mentor from Oregon is giving us the “411″ on what an InvenTeam experience is really like.

The big picture?  It’s intense, should not be underestimated, and you should not go it alone.  My only relief is my experience with FIRST, in that we’ve had the intense 6-week experience to design and deliver a product.  For those not familiar with FIRST, but involved with LMIT, check out the FIRST team organization documents for an idea of what you might need to create.

Currently, we’re watching a video created by Don’s students on how to account for team expenses, using the LMIT portal.  What I’ve learned is some kids LOVE to do this, so ask around and recruit some students who want to get involved.  Just because I don’t enjoy accounting doesn’t mean I can’t find someone. (Of course, it is one of the top job shortages for a reason, eh?).  It’s a great opportunity to bring in less technical students to get involved, inspiring them to be a part of a high-level opportunity.

There’s a lot to do, and a lot of support to do it.  Most of all, it seems that lead mentors need to focus their time and energies as project managers, not as builders.  This is cool, it’s so real.

A series of treats for the mind again today at Eurekafest. 

As an Excite Award recipient, it’s time to learn.  We began the day with Dr. Merton Flemings, faculty director of the program and renowned inventor himself.  He spoke so well about inventing, and the thoughts, passion and sweat that go into it.  Ms. Dorothy Lemelson was also there to share anecdotes about her husband’s inventing career, but even more of his inventive personality. (What she didn’t share was her incredible support of his work, his inventions might not exist without her.)

We also heard from Bill Gurstelle of Make Magazine, who gave us a great concept of what we need in a garage, especially the essentials in addition to some insane creations.  This was well-teamed with two of the leading InvenTeams from St. Thomas Academy and Brillion High.  Not just on the “stuff” you need, but an idea of how hard you need to work to get to the next level and show up with a great prototype.

We wrapped up the presentations with some cool (free!) stuff from SolidWorks, which I’m going to use with my students, and a demo on Electronics 101.  Of course, this is the first “101″ class I’ve been in that concludes with “and so we built our own Segway”.  I think this is that “drinking from a firehose” part they talked about.

One special treat was an informal tour of the famous MIT Media Lab.  I was contacted by a former student who is working on the “Stack Car” project, and he asked if I wanted to check it out.  Yeah!  A few of us got a tour of their project, saw Prof. Resnick working on his projects in Lifelong Kindergarten and so many other cool things.  The Media Lab is the leading edge in so many cool projects, and my student Charles is so psyched to be a part of it.  I know it makes me ecstatic as a teacher to have him here, and to continue to have his ideas and reflections on how I teach the next students to come along.

A rockin’ cool day, ended with a lobster dinner, of course.  Seriously, they gave us a lobster dinner!

Ever get that feeling when there’s been so much cool stuff that you forget the day?  Great, then you have my mindset.

Who am I, and why am I writing?  I’m Mike Reilly, an InvenTeams mentor (Excite Award winner, not yet an InvenTeam), from North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, GA.   I hope to give the perspective of the Excite Award teacher in my posts.  Here goes:

It’s a complete paradigm shift, I’m on board.   MIT has treated everyone so professionally, so equally, it’s a great treat to be here to talk with so many amazing people as if they were old friends.  What I’m coming away with so far are some great core ideas for teaching innovation and invention at the high school level.

From Martin Fisher’s KickStart, I feel invigorated to tie entrepreneurship and inventive simplicity with a desire to help those less fortunate.  I cannot wait to pass on the “big picture” thinking that we don’t have to invent the coolest nanothingo, but find a realistic, effective solution and create entrepreneurs.  While I can’t list all of his points, one is glaringly common sense: “Poor people of the world want to make money and control their own lives.”  And an affordable water pump can help them do that. 

He has also raised my attention to other biases that I didn’t understand that I had.  For example, I think I always assumed that the poorest folks, earning $1 a day, could not buy a $50 device, that they could not possibly save.  Wrong!  I wonder what else I don’t know.  I am sure that there are many things that I don’t.   I am sure he’s not getting rich off of it, but he has established a legacy manufacturing and distribution system that will exist well beyond him.

Patrick Walsh’s LED lamp to replace kerosene lamps was a phenomenol business presentation:  1.6 billion people could replace their lamps with LED solar-powered lamps, for $20-$30 each.  At the high end, that’s almost a $50 billion market, and Martin’s is similar in scope.  He was very straightforward, as was Martin, that generating a profit is what makes things happen, and we need to make things happen.

It makes me reflect on the FIRST robotics team I mentor, and if I should shift my attention to something less specific, something more focused on a year-round innovation/invention center.  I guess we could still compete in FIRST, as it does inspire some kids and competition is also good to experience.  But what about gathering the wonderfully diverse students we have, and listen to their ideas to create things?  We have a large group of first-generation Latin American students at our school, so they’re bringing the Emerging Countries to us!  And they could change our local products too.  What about doing things that already exist to build skills and community, like a school rooftop garden to grow vegetables and stock local food banks?

And while I barely understood anything Dr. DeSimone did, I did clearly understand a great phrase of his:  “innovation/invention is a contact sport”.  You have to be there, you have to interact with others, you have to have a strong, diverse team.

This place rocks, I’m so glad they had us up to see what the kids did, how they present, what the leading thinkers are doing.