So of all the kid activities we promote on BKFK.com, I am most excited about the way we're starting to develop individual teacher activities for each competition.
We have our
inventive thinking toolkit which is endorsed by the NEA and has teacher and student guides (and downloadable video). But now we've started doing individual lesson plans for teachers which guide for specific products.
In the case of Staples, we have a
Curriculum Guide and additional activities which feature some of our kid inventors. Like adults, kids get inspired by kid success stories so we try and teach about some of our kids.
One of my favorite kids and kid inventors of office supply products is one of the Maryland Cool School Tool winners from last year - Eric. He was 7 and had a friend who constantly forgot his planner at school and had to call Eric every night for homework assignments.
Eric learned how to brainstorm using the SCAMMPER technique and submitted 4 entries to our competition. One of them won.
Now we have a trio of brothers inventing up a storm in the Staples Invention Quest for Kids contest. Every day there seems to be a new entry in there. I can't wait to see if one of them wins.