Last week we had the pleasure of watching our client, Cassidy Crowley, 11 year old inventor of the Shark Tank hit The Baby Toon, accept the Hawaii Venture Capital Associations award for “Student Entrepreneur of the Year”. Cassidy has been working on the Baby Toon since she submitted it in the Honolulu District Science and Engineering Fair at 7 years old. Our team had the pleasure of working with Cassidy and her family on the development of The Baby Toon and bringing her idea to life. However, watching her walk across that stage to accept her award really had us thinking about ways we can encourage all young inventors to go after their dreams.
Foster an Innovation Mindset
To help your child cultivate an innovation mindset, first you must show them what one looks like. This mindset focuses on critical thinking and asking “why”. While, it is easy to apply this mindset to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects, it can, and should, be applied to every subject. Think about all the times you are reading material and ask yourself “why”—Why is that? Why did this happen? Now, let your child see you asking these questions and encourage them to do the same.
Once you have the questions, it’s time to find the answers.
Talk About Everyday Problems
There are problems all around us, talk about them. Talk about ways to solve them. Depending on the age of your child, you can come up with magical solutions with younger kids and more realistic ideas with older ones. Remember this is all about using creativity and getting your young inventor to look at the world in a different light.
Let Your Child Fail
This is a hard one for both parents, educators and students. No one likes to fail. However, we learn a lot from failure.
“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery” ― Samuel Smiles
Failure teaches us what doesn’t work, to learn from our mistakes, to find new opportunities, and courage to et back up and try again. This is a great piece from Entrepreneur Magazine talking about the ways we learn from failure, 10 Reasons Why Failure Teaches Us More Than Success. While failure is frustrating, it is also teaching your young inventor the power of resiliency—and resiliency is something that inventor or not, we all need in our daily lives.
Find Opportunities for Them to Invent
Whether it is with a Science and Engineering Fair or a summer camp, find outlets for your child to flex their “invention muscles”. These type of opportunities help students learn about different ways of thinking from both their peers and teachers. Encourage them to step out of their box and try something new.
Upcoming Event: 3D Academy Presents Invention Camp
This June we are holding a week long “Invention Camp” for students in Grades 7-12 here in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Students will explore the business practices of creating, innovating, and launching a product to see how ideas can be transformed into inventions and products. Special lectures will allow students to hear from Entrepreneurs who have walked the path of product development. This hands-on learning experience will encourage learning through trial and error and let students come up with inventions of their very own under the guidance of skilled product development experts.
Registration will be open soon for this camp! Send us an email at info@3d-innovations.com to join our “Early Registration” list as class size is limited.
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3D Innovations is a Product Development Company – from the 3D Design to a fully functional 3D Prototype & Product.
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