With funding from The Lemelson Foundation, KID Museum is partnering with Nation of Makers to compile best practices, strategies, and success stories from across the field of invention education. This project will focus on gathering stories of impact and equity, and will culminate in a playbook to support advocates in bringing to scale maker-based learning approaches. Over the duration of this project, the team will interview educators, maker organizations, funders, and advocates to collect stories and recommendations that give practitioners an advocacy roadmap for scaling current programs and identifying opportunities to launch new ones.
The “Invention Education: Stories of Impact and Equity” project had its official kickoff on June 3, at Nation of Maker’s virtual annual convening, NOMCON, where KID Museum’s Danielle Kristine Toussaint moderated a Fireside Chat with Lemelson Foundation Program Officer, David Coronado. On Zoom, before an audience of roughly 80 attendees, Coronado offered insights and shared resources on how to talk about invention education in compelling terms that inspire funders to get behind those efforts.
On the heels of NOMCON, KID Museum launched a “listening tour” to begin collecting stories from across the maker and invention education world. We began by convening a group of foundation funders and thought leaders, who offered their input and advice on overall project strategy. Moving forward, we will conduct one-on-one interviews with educators, nonprofit maker organizations, and advocates to document the current challenges and opportunities for advancing creative, hands-on education.
As part of the project, we have also created a survey to capture stories from the field. If your professional work connects in some way with designing, delivering, funding, evaluating, or advocating for maker/invention education, we would love to include your voice in the project. Please take a few moments to complete the survey here.
