July 18, 2018

Dear <<First Name>>, I’m writing to you after having attended the Lemelson-MIT Program’s annual EurekaFest event for thesecond time in a row. It was incredibly inspiring to talk with high school students and national student prizewinners from across the U.S. who showcased their inventions. I also appreciated spending time with the36 Excite Award recipients who are preparing to submit InvenTeam grant proposals in the year ahead,and our program’s Master Teachers, prize reviewers and technical mentors. EurekaFest was extra special this year as we were joined by both Lemelson family members and stafffrom The Lemelson Foundation. Eric Lemelson, Jerome Lemelson’s son, echoed the beliefs of hisvisionary father. He noted that his dad established our program at MIT to recognize and celebrate the nextgeneration of American inventors with the idea that future generations will innovate using technology tosolve the world’s greatest problems. We are very grateful for the foundation’s ongoing support of our collective work. We are also grateful fordonations received this year from Prasad Kothari and the Cima family which help with the cost of theevent. We now turn our attention to gearing up for two invention education workshops and a first of its kindconference on developing educational pathways for developing inventor and innovators (details below). I sincerely hope you are having a great summer. Thanks for making time to keep up with our news!

Sincerely,

Stephanie Couch, PhDExecutive DirectorLemelson-MIT Program

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THE NEXT GENERATION OFINVENTORS CELEBRATED ATEUREKAFEST

EurekaFest 2018 was held June 20-22 on theMIT campus and celebrated 15 teams of highschool student inventors and six collegiateinventors who won the 2018 Lemelson-MITStudent Prize competition. This year’s awardsceremony featured keynote speaker and 2013Lemelson-MIT Prize winner, Angela Belcher whocaptivated the audience with her inspiring speechthat encouraged high school students to not quit,even if people think your inventive ideas arecrazy. Check out our photos from the event,including a video about the six Lemelson-MITStudent Prize winners.

TUSTIN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTADDS JV INVENTEAMS ACTIVITY FORMIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

FRIDAYS ARE FOR INVENTION ATOREGON CITY SERVICE LEARNINGACADEMY

Oregon City Service Learning Academy, a publiccharter high school in the Oregon City SchoolDistrict located near Portland, serves a largelyunderserved population. Invention has become akey part of the school’s mission of service to thecommunity. Freshman and sophomore classesuse Lemelson-MIT JV InvenTeams activity guidesand accompanying invention kits to designunique and useful STEM projects. To BethanyTaft, who is the lead educator for JV InvenTeams,“STEM integrated through invention serves as apoint of engagement for students. They get towork with their hands and learn critical soft skillssuch as persistence, grit, problem-solving, how todeal with failure, and how to work with otherpeople. These skills are important to help breakthe cycle of poverty.”

Tustin High School in Tustin Calif. was a 2017InvenTeam that invented a device to removechewing gum from sidewalks and concretesurfaces. Then InvenTeam educator and nowLemelson-MIT Master Teacher, Ed Hernandez,continued the culture of invention in the TustinUnified School District after his InvenTeam grantended. The school implemented the JVInvenTeams Shoe Sole activity with middleschool students who displayed their completed

shoe sole design projects to the 12th graders attheir end of year Senior Showcase. Hernandez

also incorporates the activity into his 11th gradePrinciples of Engineering class where hisstudents have to design a computer model oftheir shoe sole and 3D print the model instead ofmolding it in clay.

CONFERENCE TO EXPLOREEDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS FORINVENTION AND INNOVATION

The Lemelson-MIT Program is teaming up withthe National Association of Community CollegeEntrepreneurship and the California CommunityCollege Doing What Matters for Jobs and theEconomy initiative to host a fall conference thatwill support linkages between making, inventing,and entrepreneurship offerings by high schoolsand two and four-year colleges. The conferenceis September 20-21 in Burlingame, Calif.

INVENTION EDUCATION WORKSHOPAT MIT AND CAL POLY POMONA

It’s not too late to register for our upcominginvention education workshops at Cal PolyPomona from July 25-27 and MIT August 1-3. It’sthe perfect venue for any educator interested inlearning how to implement the JV InvenTeamscurriculum in their classroom, summer camp orafter school program. Details and registration isavailable on our website.

JUST RELEASED: THE INVENTIONGENDER GAP

A new special issue of Technology andInnovation journal of the National Academy ofInventors explores why the gender disparityexists between women and men inventors andwhat is being done to address the gap. The issueincludes articles written by women who havekeen insights into the gender gap in patenting,including an article written by Executive Director,Stephanie Couch and Invention EducationOfficer, Leigh Estabrooks that analyzed resultsfrom the InvenTeam initiative. The article revealsfactors that supported and constrained youngwomen inventors – information that may becritical for designing effective programming topromote young female inventors. Read highlightsfrom the new issue or download the publicationon Ingenta where you can explore each article.

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