These are some links to ideas, organizations, videos, and other resources that I often refer to in the Invention Adventure and other programs I run. I will continue to add to it, so check back.

2018 Inventor's Challenge - Imagination Foundation and AT&T Aspire present this annual challenge (Feb 2018)

The Inventor's Journey - Imagination Foundation's description of steps in the invention process

Clever Inventions (Pinterest) - Fun ideas to get you thinking

OpenIDEO is a collaborative platform developed by the design firm IDEO to support an open approach to creative exploration. Tom and David Kelley, the brothers behind IDEO, have written a new book called Creative Confidence describing what we all can do to be more innovative. While the book is primarily targeted at adults, they have posed the challenge on OpenIDEO "How might we inspire young people to cultivate their creative confidence?" This is totally consistent with our thinking at FutureFixers, that there is a great deal of lost potential when this sort of curiosity, inventive thinking, and "creative confidence" is allowed to die in kids. It is wonderful to try to rekindle these fires in adults, but much more powerful if they hadn't flickered out in the first place.

Whether or not you want to actually take part in the challenge, the site is worth browsing if you care about these issues and ideas. The Inspiration phase goes until October 23, then comes the Ideas phase, followed by Applause, Refinement, and Evaluation phases. So, it looks like things will continue to evolve for a while, but the whole challenge ends on December 17th, so don't go too long without checking back on its progress. Even better, try getting involved! It's a great question and a fun way to explore it together.

Fixers, Unite! I stumbled across this wonderful document during some fixer-related web surfing one day. I think it's a great summary of many of the ideas that FutureFixers encourages kids to incorporate, not only in the context of the projects and programs they do with us, but in their lives in general. I've included the manifesto below, but here's a link to the original document created by the firm Sugru, makers of goop that fixes stuff (check out their site to see what I mean). Their preamble to the document goes as follows: