Dear Parents,

This past Saturday, I spent the day at the Talcott Mountain Science Center working with other science teachers from across the state.  We came together for the day to discuss our schools’ participation in the Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC).   Now in it’s 30th year, the CIC is a state-wide program that guides students through the engineering process as they work to solve real world problems.

This year, our second grade students will participate in the CIC process.  As a former CIC participant (yes you will see my “Immovable Bowl” video), I am excited to bring such a rewarding program to our students. Our program will kick off with an engaging take apart activity at STEM Night on November 7th.  We will work toward our local invention convention at Discovery Academy in early April.  The culminating event will be held at UConn on May 3rd where we will send several of our students as representative inventors with all other second graders as their support network.

As we move forward, I want to emphasize that the goal of the program is NOT the invention.  The goal is to teach students the engineering process as they work toward an invention.  With a maximum budget of $25, we are not developing the perfect gadget made out of titanium.  Instead, we will use developmentally appropriate materials so that students can spend more of their effort on the process of improving their idea and the way to solve their chosen problem.

I will post more about this program and how we will develop it at Discovery Academy in the near future.  If you would like to learn more about the program in general, you can access a story that NPR published this morning.

-Mr. Reed-Swale