The CSA, NSERC Team up With the Little Inventors on Educational Initiative

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have partnered with Little Inventors to challenge and engage children “to come up with invention solutions to help astronauts with their lives up in orbit.”

Little Inventors is the creation of Dominic Wilcox an “inspirational inventor, designer and artist who creates innovative and thought-provoking objects” according to their website.

Started in the U.K., the organization has spread globally and is now in Canada through this new collaboration. Each school year a new challenge is set. This year it’s about space.

NSERC and Little Inventors have launched a new website (http://nserc.littleinventors.org/) as a resource for teachers and to provide inspiration for children.

Here are some of the ways listed  teachers and schools can participate;

• Students are invited to work on their own ideas for useful inventions to makes life in space easier and more fun.
• Teachers will be given tools and resources to support the idea-generation phase with students.
• Students are invited to develop ideas on the theme of Astronauts living in space, but can also extend their invention ideas to space travel or astronaut training – as supported in the full resource package.
• Your students’ invention ideas will be uploaded to our website and some of them could be made real – a fantastic inventive way to inspire your Little Inventors.

Yesterday, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques participated in the unveiling of the new program and discussed his role. The full video presentation is below.