{"id":6270,"date":"2022-05-24T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=6270"},"modified":"2022-05-24T13:43:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T17:43:54","slug":"creating-a-sandbox-of-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2022\/05\/creating-a-sandbox-of-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Sandbox of Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spring signifies new beginnings, progress, and the blossoming of new things. But did you know that May is also National Inventors Month? If it weren’t for inventors, you might be receiving this post through the telegraph or the Pony Express! National Inventor’s Month recognizes the talents of people who have impacted our world with their inventions. It’s also a great time for our students to develop the courage to share their creativity and ingenuity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Explore an inventor’s workshop through the eyes of Leonardo da Vinci on\u00a0Da Vinci the Genius<\/a>, or encourage your students to research famous inventors in\u00a0The National Inventors Hall of Fame<\/a>.\u00a0Design Squad Global<\/a>\u00a0is a fantastic resource from PBS Kids for fostering creativity and invention in your classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Host an invention convention for your students. Start by posing a problem for students to solve and encourage them to organize their ideas through a concept map using Bubbl.us (reviewed here<\/a>). Create presentations with Microsoft Sway (reviewed here<\/a>) to share invention creations. Check out this collection of\u00a0inventors and inventions<\/a>\u00a0for more resources to celebrate during May!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Develop creativity and ingenuity through\u00a0Guilford’s model of divergent thinking<\/a>. This collection of resources and information outlines steps that help students practice creativity in the classroom. Use different aspects of the FFOE framework for warmups or for activities on choice menus to help students establish a foundation for creativity. You can also check out\u00a0DISRUPTUS<\/a> by FoxMind, a game that revolves around new ways to create, transform, or improve ideas or objects.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These resources are an excellent starting place, but the question, posed in this video on the Rubik’s Cube<\/a>, remains: How can teachers create a safe place in their classrooms to foster a community of learners seeking questions, not answers? The sandbox is an iconic symbol of early childhood play experiences. It was a space to explore, imagine, and create with limitless potential for play. Creating an active, authentic learning environment through a “sandbox approach” fosters self-directed learners and may inspire the next Grace Hopper! Data, standards, and scripted programs saturate our current classrooms, but the sandbox strategies below return the power to the learner.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n