PBS Design Squad

According to "Curious George" Margolin, “an ‘inventor’ is almost any child under the age of about 9. He…lives partly in the ‘real’ world and ‘much’ in a world of possibilities and make-believe.” This is great news if you are teaching kids 9 and under, but how do we keep this curiosity alive in our older students? The following sites and resources can help maintain this intrinsic sense of curiosity that blossoms during the younger years. Please browse through these resources and search for more that will suit your needs on The Gateway. Good luck, and may you and your students be inspired and innovative this year!

When I was in second grade, our teacher assigned us a project on inventors. It was to be our first research project, where we had to use the school and public libraries to collect information about our chosen inventors.

“I already have my book,” I told Mrs. Flanagan on the day the project was assigned.

Mrs. Flanagan was duly impressed by my efficiency, until she found out that my book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and that my chosen inventor was Willy Wonka.

“He’s not a real person, dear,” she said. “Your report has to be on an actual inventor.”

With 3 kids of various ages, it’s pretty difficult to find a TV show that’s both age-appropriate and entertaining for them all. Terrific, then, that one day we happened to stumble upon Design Squad, a Peabody Award-winning reality competition series on PBS where teen contestants tackle engineering challenges for an actual client. My kids were all immediately engrossed in the show: the squabbling stopped, quiet ensued, and I avoided a date with some Extra-Strength Tylenol. Bliss! Design Squad’s mission is to attract kids to engineering and inventing, and to this end has created a host of science activities, teacher’s guides, and other resources to help students flex their design process skills while learning science and engineering concepts.