This piece from Charles M Schweik at the University of Massachusetts champions the power of makerspaces for lifelong learning. It’s so important that we don’t lose the value of practical experience in childhood. We love his observation that hands-on learning is about making connections – to wider research, students’ long-term goals after education, between areas…
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We’re really interested in making connections between art and science to help us understand our world. Memo Akten‘s video links our shared ideas on universal concepts by showing how an algorithm would make sense of them. The result is that we see our interpretations in an entirely new yet recognisable way. An unusually inventive instance…
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Next in our series on the next generation of young innovators and inventors, we’re looking at three youth-led projects tackling plastic waste. What we loved about all their stories was that they weren’t afraid to ask questions and above all, learn. Join us at our Mega Maker Lab this August for the chance to try out…
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“BIM Incubator brings together participants from disparate fields of knowledge to think collaboratively about blackness and black culture in relation to architecture”. We love the idea of “scrambling” this architectural, technical acronym to provoke thought and self-expression in new ways as part of Black Imagination Matters. On a humid, grey morning at Princeton in a…
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This app is a really lovely example of innovation and technology being used to help young people. Thinking creatively means that social workers are able to reach children where they are, where they feel safe and in language they understand. It’s so important that we take the approach of tailoring services to what works for…
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We’re huge advocates of exploring the potential of play and its capacity to expand learning. What we liked about this article on research into outdoor play was what the team saw as the benefits of the snow study. Rather than just improving teaching methods, the children actually recognised the positive effects on their wellbeing for…
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A couple of weeks ago we looked at how sci-fi can be a positive way to understand social issues such as climate change. Here, NPR continues this thought by tracing how we get from today’s world to that future. It’s inspiring to see the growing support for imagination and creative thinking being applied in this…
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We love learning about the positive effects of simple, creative activities; it’s at the core of what we do at iOi and IM. Even better in this case, dancing is also a naturally communal activity that reinforces social bonds and benefits us all. So, feel the rhythm, catch the beat, and keep it moving. If…
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We’re huge advocates of alternative routes to learning, and making it relevant to all. Maths might be one of the biggest challenges; its rigid principles seemingly essential to understanding. The problem, says US educator and self-confessed “maths lover”, Dan Finkel, is that underestimating maths is leaving a gap in our everyday and future lives. Dan…
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This research into how creativity and ‘distant thinking‘ feed each other is fascinating. We focus a lot on the benefits of imagination for solving problems and navigating our world in the present, but it’s exciting to think that it can help us tap into our future potential. The common human default mode is that we…
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