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inventing

Innovation with STEM Scouts

January 17, 2024 by NCAC STEM

One of our recently developed STEM Scouts modules takes elementary schoolers on the journey of innovation. During their first meeting, scouts were handed individual kits and given basic instructions to assemble a simple yet entertaining wiggle bot. Wiggle bots are simple bots, that use a nonconcentric weight to generate some movement. As soon as the bots power on, typically they move in abysmal patterns, causing much amusement and giggles. The came the challenge: scouts were tasked to control their bots and make them “move in a straight line.”

This seemingly lighthearted challenge became a serious exercise in stamina and iteration for the scouts, immersing them in the hands-on intricacies of the engineering design process—a skill closely intertwined with the art of inventing.

Subsequent sessions delved into crucial aspects of inventing, including marketing, selling, and establishing a business. Scouts engaged in a brand awareness game, testing their knowledge of various logos. They also explored the significance of patents, examining patented products from our Council box of Inventions—among them, the crowd favorite LifeStraw. In an engaging twist, scouts were prompted to brainstorm improvements for the LifeStraw, sparking creativity and critical thinking.

A hallmark of STEM Scouts is providing career exploration; we are fortunate that this module lent well to two local field trips that enhance our STEM Scouts’ appreciation of inventing.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame museum resides in the USPTO HQ in Alexandria, VA. There scouts are able to explore exhibits such as “What is a counterfeit” and see the crowd favorite “50 years of innovation mustang”.

The Draper Spark! Lab at the National Museum of American History offers scouts interactive exhibits to try their hand at inventing – creating circuits, constructing pinball machines, designing costumes, etc. In fact, the Spark! Lab has an excellent bite size “inventing process” that helped guide scouts through the ideating process. All scouts walked out of our third meeting with sketches and an early model of their inventions made with supplies we had in lab (clay, pipe cleaners, recyclables). A few came back to their subsequent meetings with elaborate working models! We can’t wait to see these STEM Scouts’ future as inventors!

Filed Under: Scouting Programs Tagged With: inventing, STEM, STEM Scouts

Join America’s Innovation Ecosystem!

July 16, 2022 by NCAC STEM

 

The United States Patent & Trademark Office and HERL of University of Pittsburgh (Human Engineering Research Laboratories) are hosting a hybrid event for Scouts BSA youth and friends to earn the Inventing Merit Badge.

The event is graciously being hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories and will include tours and demos of their labs and machine shop!

There is also an option to join the event as a virtual participant. 

 

What: Inventing Merit Badge
Where: at University of Pittsburgh, Human Engineering Research Laboratories & virtually

When: July 23, 2022

Registration: https://scoutingevent.com/082-inventing

Filed Under: Scouting At Home Tagged With: inventing, Merit Badges, scouting at home

Scout Inventors, with thanks to the USPTO!

September 11, 2021 by NCAC STEM

This summer, the United States Patent & Trademark Office hosted a multi-day virtual event for over 150 Scouts BSA to earn the Inventing Merit Badge. In July, youth were welcomed to a virtual learning session by Elizabeth Dougherty, the Eastern Regional Outreach Director of the USPTO and David Gooder, the Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO and Eagle Scout.

Keynote presenters included National Inventor’s Hall of Fame Inductee Eric Fossum and multi-patent owner Rory Cooper, both of whom are Eagle Scouts.

Stephen Yanchuk, the Special Advisor to the Director of the EROO – USPTO, led a session on intellectual property and helped familiarize scouts with resources such as the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, USPTO’s virtual museum, and Google Patents.  A panel of inventors – Dr. Stanley Fricke, Anna Hopen and Mitchell Kempisty – moderated by Tomeka Oubichon of the EROO-USPTO then shared their stories of why they invent. Finally, scouts split into breakout rooms to brainstorm their own inventions. Each breakout was facilitated by a couple USPTO or industry Merit Badge Counselors who shared their expertise.

The nearly 2 dozen merit badge counselors continued to counsel the scouts through a multi-week expedition during which the scouts invented various objects. All of the inventions had to “solve a problem” to meet the Merit Badge requirement as well as the ‘usefulness’ criteria required to earn a patent. Several scouts demonstrated prototypes in a virtual inventing showcase,  some video clips of which are here.

 

In culmination of the event, scouts heard from another inventor, and BSA STEM Scout from Denver, Colorado, Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali Rao was named the 2020 TIME Kid of the Year and had just recently received a patent for her device, lead contamination detecting device Tethys! You can watch the interview with STEM Scout Inventor Gitanjali on Facebook Live.

Our tremendous thank you goes to the many Inventing Merit Badge Counselors who made this learning session a reality. Over 100 Scouts BSA earned their Inventing Merit Badges with the tutelage of the USPTO’s summer events, and we are so grateful!

Above all, we thank the Eastern Regional Outreach Office of the USPTO for developing the infrastructure to counsel the Inventing Merit Badge and for encouraging youth inventors!

 

Filed Under: Scouting At Home Tagged With: inventing, Merit badges at home, STEM

8/28 Scout Invention Showcase & Facebook Live with TIME Kid of the Year, a STEM Scout Inventor!

August 24, 2021 by NCAC STEM

Join us on Saturday, August 28th at 5 pm EST for another STEM Speaker Series with the TIME Kid of the Year and STEM Scout Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali was honored for her work using STEM skills to address issues like bullying, opioid addiction and contaminated drinking water. You can catch this special edition of the STEM Speaker Series on the NCAC STEM Facebook page!

Photo from Time: from: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/12/09/first-ever-time-kid-of-the-year-is-a-stem-scout-from-colorado/

Want to join the conversation?

If your Scout would like to submit a question for the chance to see it answered live, you can submit it via this form.

Have you invented something? Want to share in the Inventing Showcase?

Send us a photo or video clip and we will include it in the August 28th Scouts’ Inventing Showcase!

Share in this Google Drive or email to 082stem@gmail.com

Be sure to include: your name, city, state, grade, and a brief statement of what problem your invention aims to solve.

This is an especially excellent opportunity for Scouts BSA youth working on their Inventing Merit Badge. Or if you’ve already created an invention, please share with us as we want to feature it!

 

 

What is STEM Scouts?

STEM Scouts is a BSA program for girls and boys in grades 3-8 to explore science, technology, engineering and math. STEM Scouts meet in groups called Labs and explore hands-on experiments through 20 activities designed by educators at National each year. You can read more about this here.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Scouting At Home Tagged With: inventing, Merit Badges, STEM

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