Northwest
Invention
Center

Workshops and training

Innovation Works! - One and two day workshops focused on improving the innovation climate. Teams work together in a variety of fun, fast-paced activities to learn how to work creatively. Compared to workshops offered by others, Innovation Works! is the most kinetic and dynamic, with strongly positive participant ratings.
Creativity - The Future of Education and Learning. Unleash your creativity and watch your students excel. You can teach less and be more effective in helping your students learn by applying the principles of Creative Learning.™ Teaching should focus on student learning, not on forcing rote memorization of facts. Students in the 21st century must be able to apply their learning to solve problems in the business, civic, and academic worlds, and they need to learn in a creative, problem-solving atmosphere to prepare them. Teaching creatively establishes classroom environments in which creative thinking, research, and learning flourish.
Inventing to Learn - Students discover the mandated science content while they engage in inquiry in a quest to invent toys. They work in small teams to solve problems, collect data, and report results. Students are actively engaged from the first minute and are totally motivated to perfect their inventions.
Igniting Creativity! - Discover how you are creative and how to unleash that inner creativity in this one-day workshop. Everyone has creative talents and this workshop uncovers them and nurtures them.

Schedule a workshop

Unleash the creative energy of students and jump start science learning with a workshop for your teachers. Our "Inventing to Learn" workshops provide the "ahha" moment for many teachers that propel them to more effective teaching. Other workshop topics include robotics, gizmos and gadgets, toy making, electric motor science, and innovation.

Sailing around the world

Workshops around the world This fall Ed will be sailing around the world aboard the MV Explorer with Semester at Sea. While at sea, Ed will teach two classes of oceanography and one on the methods of teaching science. The classes are offered through the University of Virginia. Ashore, he will give hands-on workshops at local schools, lead student sea kayaking and snorkeling trips, and explore the ten countries on four continents.

How toys work

"The Way Toys Work" was recently published by Chicago Review Press. Ed and his son Woody wrote this book that details the history and technology of fun toys and shows how to make simple home versions of many of them. This is Ed’s 20th published book.