September 10, 2025 • 26 mins
What happens when middle school students are given the freedom to think, create, and solve real-world problems?
Principal Larry Connelly and teacher Karen Garland join host George Davison to share their seven-year journey implementing Inventionland Education's STEAM curriculum for 8th graders. Unlike traditional classroom experiences, this program puts students in the driver's seat, working in teams to identify problems and develop innovative solutions through a comprehensive nine-step process.
The results speak volumes. Students who struggle in conventional academic settings find their strengths celebrated in this collaborative environment. The program has become so popular that some homeschool families enroll their children specifically for this course. Local businesses eagerly partner with student teams, providing real-world mentorship opportunities that bridge classroom concepts with practical applications.
Most striking is how the program transforms student engagement. Attendance rates soar during presentation periods, with students taking ownership of their learning and supporting their peers. "I think this is an example of something that helps keep kids coming to school," Connelly explains, noting how students have even participated virtually while on family vacations rather than miss their presentation day.
Beyond invention skills, students develop crucial life competencies—communication, collaboration, time management, and resilience in the face of failure. As Garland reflects, "Thinking—that sounds so simple, but when students talk about their experience and they talk about how 'we just kind of had to think about this,' that's a teacher's dream."
Discover how one school's approach is redefining education by prioritizing building life skills over traditional grades, giving students the freedom to explore, create, and believe in their capabilities. Visit TomorrowsWorldToday.com for more stories of innovation and positive change shaping our future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steven Ruffing (00:01):
Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
We sit down with experts,world-changing innovators,
creators and makers to explorehow they're taking action to
make tomorrow's world a betterplace for technology, science,
innovation, sustainability, thearts and more.
Host George Davison, who isalso the host of the TV series,
(00:23):
tomorrow's World Today, sitsdown with Grove City Middle
School principal Larry Connollyand teacher Karen Garland about
how Inventionland Educationengages 8th grade students with
a STEM and STEAM curriculum.
The program culminates in aninvention contest that fosters
real-world problem-solving andboosts student attendance.
George M. Davison (00:44):
Hello everybody, and welcome to
another edition of Tomorrow'sWorld Today.
Well, today we have theprincipal and the teacher, who
are really involved withInventionland Education and the
invention contest that we justhad, and their students just won
the big award this year.
And so please welcome KarenGarland, who teaches the course,
(01:06):
and the principal of the school, larry Conley, welcome, thank
you.
So how exciting is this Very.
Your students worked very hard,didn't they?
Karen Garland (01:16):
So proud yes.
George M. Davison (01:18):
It was a big day.
We had a lot of folks runningaround through Inventionland.
But, yeah, your students werevery well prepared and they had
been through the course and theyprepared for those judges in a
way that they made it look likeit was easy.
Larry Connelly (01:33):
We have great students, but also two great
teachers in the program, sothey're always well prepared.
George M. Davison (01:38):
Yes, so let's talk a little bit about you
know how did this course happento get to your school?
What school are you with?
Grove City Middle School.
Grove City Middle School.
How did it get to?
Larry Connelly (01:51):
your school, so it would have been probably
seven or eight years ago Ourcurrent superintendent it was
his idea to kind of look into it.
He had some familiarity withInventionland and the education
program with Inventionland.
We came for a visit.
We were blown away at thefacility, at the people that we
met and talked to, and at thatpoint we started conversations
(02:14):
of how we can make this work inour school.
We visited some other schoolsthat were implementing the
Inventionland curriculum,learned some things from them
and got some professionaldevelopment for our team on how
to implement it.
And then we kind of made it ourown and came up with a way,
looking for ways to engage ourstudents, to get them more
(02:35):
involved in STEAM-relatedactivities, critical thinking,
collaboration, and just checkedall the boxes.
George M. Davison (02:43):
Wow, and just checked all the boxes.
Wow, so that actively lookingto you know give your students a
leg up or something that mighthelp them with their future.
Is that a way?
Is that something, actively,that you do?
Larry Connelly (02:56):
Absolutely, and it's something different.
Obviously, I believe all thecourses that we offer are
valuable in their own way, butthe Inventionland course is very
unique.
I love visiting the classbecause the kids tell me the
story of what's going on.
That doesn't always happen.
When I walk into all classrooms, you know, I might hear
teachers telling me what's goingon the Inventionland.
(03:19):
The kids are running the show.
The teachers obviously aredoing a phenomenal job of
preparing them for it, but thestudents are really running the
show, just like these youngladies did with the untie knot,
and it's really exciting to seeit really is and, Karen, you're
teaching the class right, I amHow's that going.
Karen Garland (03:38):
I love it.
I absolutely love it.
Ben English and I, we bothteach it.
So we have students, we teachsixth grade, seventh grade and
eighth grade, so we see allthree grades but we offer the
class in eighth grade only.
But the sixth graders cominginto the school, they come up to
both of us to say we'rethinking about an invention,
(03:58):
we're thinking about aninvention.
And we kind of have to slowtheir roll a little bit because
they're not quite there.
But we say tuck those ideasaway, you're going to be working
with a team.
So it's not your idea, it'sgoing to be a team idea and it
just by the time they get toeighth grade they're motivated,
they're excited, they're reallylooking forward to the program.
(04:19):
And then Mr in English and Iwe've been doing it for a few
years now.
We've tried different ways toteach the program.
Administration ouradministration has given us
great support and flexibility todo so.
So that has really helped us asteachers as well, to try, maybe
fail, and to be better.
So over the years we've kind oftweaked the class to our works
(04:43):
for us and we're in a nicegroove right now so and not only
just helps the students, but ithas helped us be better
teachers as well well, that'sexciting.
George M. Davison (04:53):
I mean because you've been teaching the
course long enough now to seethe the outcomes yes what sort
of outcomes are we seeing fromyour students?
Because you don't have thiscourse in high school yet you
have it in middle school.
Karen Garland (05:07):
Eighth grade only .
Yes.
George M. Davison (05:08):
So can we chat a little bit about?
You know when the students arefinished in eighth grade.
You know what are you seeing,and then do you track any of
these kids as they're movinginto high school?
So, I will yeah.
Karen Garland (05:22):
I'll share some outcomes with you.
So we have the planned outcomes.
Everybody goes through thenine-step process.
You'll have an invention,you'll pitch, we'll have a
school contest.
That happens but because we seeevery student, so they might
have an individual educationplan, they might have a
particular type of challenge.
(05:42):
We see all of them.
They also have individualchallenges and goals for
themselves and you could seethat really come out.
Their talents come out in theirown way because we have teams.
So typically I'll have six,seven, eight teams.
Each team I kind of treat as anindividual student.
(06:03):
So I can kind of really I don'tknow personally modify the
class to each team.
So if each team is strugglingin technology, I'll give them a
little more help with technology.
If they're struggling withcommunication, we form a
different plan on theirpresentation style.
(06:24):
So they each have individualgoals.
So what they accomplish, I seeevery team accomplishes
something different.
But also individually I seeachievements that only a teacher
would recognize and I'm goingto share a story with you.
That is one of my favoritestories, but I don't know if I
should, but I'm going to anyway.
(06:45):
So one of my students, his goalwas to not speak a certain way
during the presentation.
He would often use a word thatwas not acceptable at school,
okay.
So that was his challenge, thatwas his goal.
When you speak, you're notallowed to say this particular
word, and we practice andpractice and he did it and he
(07:06):
did it.
So nobody in this universewould ever know that was a goal
for him.
As a teacher, I knew it and hedid it and it was an
accomplishment that we havetalked about to this day.
So there's goals andachievements that these students
they tackle.
Goals and achievements thatthese students they tackle, they
(07:27):
accomplish, and I see a senseof pride, tremendous pride.
It's tough to fail and keepgoing, and it's tough when
you're frustrated and you haveto keep going, and I do think
the team mentality helps youwith that.
So, because they're on a teamtypically three, sometimes two
or four, but typically threethey support each other.
When one's not there, the twoor four, but typically three
they support each other.
When one's not there, the otherones will pick up the slack.
(07:48):
Sometimes they get along,sometimes they're with their
friends, sometimes they're notwith their friends, and they
learn how to work with peoplethat they may never have spoken
to otherwise.
So there's so manyaccomplishments.
I'll stop there, but theaccomplishments are vast.
George M. Davison (08:03):
Well, thanks for sharing the story with us.
That's wonderful.
You know it's a.
This is an emerging part of youknow what we do today and how
we teach our kids.
So you know, applied STEM, orSTEAM as we call it today.
It's it sounds like you'reactually applying some of what
we teach in the course as ateacher, because you're doing
(08:25):
observational analysis of yourstudents and adjusting it
accordingly Always.
Yeah, that's big customizationthere.
That's pretty good it is yes,it's outstanding, it's great
work so, but you know, gettingan opportunity to shape young
minds that way, as powerful asthat is, it, does take some work
(08:46):
to get it through theadministration, doesn't it?
I mean, how did that happen?
Because some schools they haveset curriculums and set times.
How did you squeeze this courseinto your already busy schedule
?
Larry Connelly (09:00):
It took a little bit of creativity, a lot of
conversations.
We were fortunate we had anadvantage in that the way our
schedule was built.
Karen taught business as arelated arts nine weeks class in
eighth grade.
Ben taught tech engineeringalready built into the schedule.
We had to redo things to makeit a semester long class that
(09:21):
they taught invention landtogether, semester-long class
that they taught invention landtogether.
So it took some tweaks and somechanges but and a lot of
conversations, a lot of dialogueand when we landed on it I
think we all were a little bitskeptical that it might work the
way we hoped.
But it worked better than whatwe even anticipated.
It has been, and Ben and Karenwould be the first to tell you
(09:44):
they don't always do things thesame way, they don't always see
things the same way, but theywould, I think, also agree that
there's value in that thestudents work with both of them
equally and it's been a greatpartnership.
George M. Davison (09:59):
You know, impact in the community with the
parents.
How do the parents react?
Well, you know these kids areworking so hard.
They also take them, take theprojects home, you know, to
their homes during the weekendsor whenever else.
Have you had any feedback fromthe parents?
Larry Connelly (10:16):
Great feedback.
Yes, it is.
Again, I don't want to say putone class above another, but
overall the Inventionland coursethey do, and we've had some
parents who maybe homeschooltheir children and they want to
(10:44):
send their child to the middleschool just for Inventionland
and then homeschool themotherwise.
So there's a variety of waysthat we have seen and heard from
parents about the respect thatthey have for the Inventionland
course.
George M. Davison (10:57):
That's wonderful.
That's great to hear.
Thank you for sharing that, ofcourse.
Karen Garland (11:00):
Can I add one more thing to that, of course?
So not only do we have parentalsupport, for sure, but we also
reach out to a lot of communitymembers, businesses that are
local, to help with students.
So we have Wabtec, used to beGeneral Electric.
They'll come in and they'reengineers and they'll kind of
sit with our students and we'llgo over things and problem solve
(11:23):
, because some of these problemsget kind of difficult for them,
and I am not an engineer.
So we encourage companies topartnership with our district
and our school and we also takelike we had an invention that
had to do with candy.
In fact they won a competition.
They melted, like JollyRanchers, and added something
(11:44):
and turned it into a straw.
It was called Sweet Straw.
So we have House Coffee.
They also make candy.
So we took the students toHouse Coffee and they got to
talk to and interview candymakers.
So we have a lot of businesses.
George M. Davison (12:00):
Yes stickers.
Karen Garland (12:00):
So we have a lot of businesses.
We had an eyeglass product onetime and we went to the optical
companies in Grove City to haveher do some market research.
So she handed out surveys tocommunity members that would
come in and get their glassesrepaired or prescribed.
So we have, we've reached outand really pulled in businesses.
(12:21):
This is my second career.
My first career was astockbroker, so bringing the
real world into education hasbeen a passion of mine since
I've started teaching.
I think that real worldconnection is super important,
not just businesses to know whatwe do at schools and for these
young people, but I think theyoung people need to know this
(12:43):
is do at schools and for theseyoung people, but I think the
young people need to know thisis a real deal.
Like the two studentsinterviewed today for your
podcast.
This is real.
They're seeing everyone who'sproducing and managing and
running the camera and the sound.
It's a lot more than you'd everexpect, so they're getting
introduced to the real world.
Yeah, they really are.
George M. Davison (12:58):
I mean Sam and Olivia.
So they're getting introducedto the real world.
Yeah, they really are.
I mean Sam and Olivia.
They did the untie knot whichis in front of us today.
This was their invention, theywon with and they figured out.
You know, they figured out alot.
They figured out raw material,science, manufacturing
methodologies, graphic design,package design and a lot more,
(13:18):
but all real world and appliedright.
And so, yes, I'm learning math,I'm learning English, but
applying all of that in myproject is so wonderful, because
now I understand why are theyteaching me this and why are
they teaching me that.
Karen Garland (13:33):
Well, now you know why, you can start to see
how the real world works rightand plus the soft skills you
know, the communication and thecollaboration, problem solving
and just time management is huge.
They don't always finish thingsin class, so do they use their.
(13:53):
It's kind of like a study halltime we give them in their
schedule, so they'll kind offigure out okay, should I get
this done, or go to Invention,lean and work on this?
They work on it at home and theweekends, like was said, so
time management is reallyimportant as well.
George M. Davison (14:07):
That's interesting.
So your students, if they're,if they have a break or study
hall, they can go back to theirinnovation lab.
Yes, and work on the project.
That's good.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's good for me to know.
Project.
That's good.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's good for me to know.
Now, did you have to talk withthe school board or anything to
change anything else to get thiscourse?
(14:27):
We're in there.
What other approvals did youhave to go through?
Larry Connelly (14:31):
There was not a formal pitch to the school board
for signing the contract.
The board did have to approvethe purchase of the curriculum
and we have, for what it's worthgiven, because we're so proud
of how successful we've been andthe outcomes we've had.
We have definitely updated theschool board frequently.
We also include school boardmembers in our local contest at
(14:55):
Grove City Middle School to bejudges and they always love
doing that and walk awayincredibly impressed.
So we don't at this pointcertainly have to sell the board
on the program because it hassold itself Right, because
you've had it for eight years.
Karen Garland (15:10):
Seven or eight years.
George M. Davison (15:11):
Seven or eight years now, so you've had
enough time to really, you know,get immersed in it, and I'm
glad to hear you've tweaked it alittle bit.
I'll take some of that back toour team as well.
Do you have a?
If you were to look forwardinto the future a little bit,
what do you think you knoweducation at your school looks
like?
I mean, in tomorrow's world, ifyou could continue down the
(15:34):
path of STEM and STEAM andinspiring your students this way
real world teaching likereal-world application what do
you think long-term that leadsto?
Larry Connelly (15:45):
I think long-term it leads to, you know,
we talk more aboutcompetency-based outcomes, you
know, and not necessarily abouttrying to get a 90%, whatever
that is or whatever it might be,but competencies and skills.
And so you know, I thinkInventionland is a perfect
example of a program that Karenwould be the first to tell you
(16:06):
she doesn't care what grade theyget, and sometimes it's
difficult for her to even make agrade tied to what these young
ladies did.
So that's kind of, you know,looking at the skills that we
can grow in students throughother programs and making other
courses more outcome-based asopposed to memorizing or
(16:26):
regurgitating information, thosekinds of things.
Karen Garland (16:29):
I think thinking I know that sounds so simple,
but when students talk abouttheir experience and they talk
about how, yeah, we just kind ofhad to think about this, that's
a teacher's dream, like theyhad to think and just being free
to think and I think that ispart of education is you need
(16:51):
that freedom to think.
You need all of the lessonsfrom all of the courses,
definitely, definitely.
I also, I just think it'simportant to have the freedom to
explore, the comfort and thesupport to think and try and
learn.
It's just as simple, but it'sit's.
I think it's over overlooked.
You just have to have thefreedom to think and the freedom
(17:13):
to learn and experience.
So I, that's, I think, is is thefuture, is pulling things
together to make it all fitRight.
And I also think it's reallyimportant that customization we
talked about it and learning anddoing whatever it is you feel
you're good at do it, you can doit.
(17:33):
So I think this program isgreat at really highlighting
students' strengths.
Poor at me and they just fly,and I've seen it with every
single type of student and Iwould say the same thing I
really would.
They might not win the contest,they might not get an A which.
I don't know how often thathappens, but I would say that's
(17:56):
one of the strengths of thistype of education.
George M. Davison (18:00):
So, from a teacher's perspective, if you
were able to talk to otherteachers out there, what do you
think you would share with them?
Like prior to knowing aboutInventionland If I'm a little
fearful and I'm not, you know Ididn't go to school to teach
teaching anything other than,let's say, english, and now I'm
(18:21):
being asked to maybe teach acourse like this.
What would you share with ateacher in that situation?
Karen Garland (18:29):
this.
What would you share with ateacher in that situation?
So when I first learned aboutInventionland, I was teaching a
class and we called itentrepreneurship and it was kind
of similar in that they wouldcome up with students would come
up with their own type ofcompany on an individual basis,
their own company, and so Ireally liked the program and I
actually didn't want to give itup.
I really liked my class, mycurriculum, but of course I was
(18:51):
open to this and just took offwith it.
So I would advise teachers thatare going to try to teach
Inventionland a program similarI think first you have to be
absolutely open.
I think you have to be almostthe student of Inventionland
first, not being afraid to try,because I've tried a couple of
(19:14):
different things how many weeksshould the program be?
What order?
I've tried lots of differentthings.
So I think if you expectstudents to go through this
process, you have to be willingto go through a similar process.
And so I think being open,being flexible, trying and see
if that works and why doesn't it, a lot of self-reflection as
(19:35):
well, I think all of that isneeded just within the teacher,
their attitude really, and theircommitment to the success of a
program like this, and thenafter that it's just hard work,
yeah.
Steven Ruffing (19:49):
Yeah.
Karen Garland (19:50):
But it's rewarding, it's super rewarding,
obviously.
George M. Davison (19:53):
Right, because, as a teacher, you want
to have that engagement withyour students.
Oh, absolutely 100%.
And are you feeling as thoughyou're making an impact?
Karen Garland (20:02):
Yes.
George M. Davison (20:03):
Yes.
Karen Garland (20:04):
Yes, because I have known the students in sixth
grade and seventh grade, but ona very individual basis and
only for nine weeks at a timewhen I see eighth graders for an
entire 18 weeks and, like Isaid, they're in teams of three
and so I get to know them as aperson and as a team and how
they work.
They also see me as I thinkdifferently as a teacher work.
(20:29):
They also see me as I thinkdifferently as a teacher.
I think by the time they see mein eighth grade they see I just
want to support you and want tomake you a better you.
So they might think I'm alittle hard on them or I asked
them questions they don't haveanswers to.
You know I get the eye rollsand the gasps, but they get
through it and then the nextweek they are just on their way
(20:51):
and they see it.
So I think going through thatprocess with me when they leave
the middle school and I'm so sadwhen they do every time eighth
grade leaves you develop arelationship through those
struggles with students and theyabsolutely develop a sense of
confidence and pride inthemselves as well.
George M. Davison (21:11):
So what I heard was you got into the
teaching profession and you'regetting what you were hoping to
get out of becoming a teacher.
Karen Garland (21:20):
Absolutely 100%.
George M. Davis (21:22):
Congratulations , you're doing a great job.
Karen Garland (21:24):
Thank you.
George M. Davison (21:25):
Thank you.
Your students represent youwell.
Larry, how about if you wereable to talk to you know a
person like yourself, asuperintendent, a principal, and
you had never heard ofInventionland?
I mean, if you were to talk tosomebody like that, what could
you share with them to help themunderstand why this might help
(21:46):
their community?
Larry Connelly (21:47):
Well, I think, first of all, the one thing that
blows me away, that we'vealready spoken about, is just
the number of skills thatstudents utilize in the course.
Any school administrator, anyteacher, would want to see
students, you know, thinkingcritically, making things with
their hands, working withtechnology, working on
(22:07):
presentation skills,collaborating, working with
others.
The list goes on.
The number of skills that areinvolved is how could you say no
to that?
How could you not want that foryour students?
On top of it, those skills arealso connected to the real world
and things that they're goingto.
They're going to benefit themwhen they get to ninth grade,
when they get to high school,when they get beyond high school
(22:29):
.
And finally, and maybe equallyas important, the engagement,
the excitement.
We want students to be excitedto tell us about what they
learned, what they just made,what they created, and not just
going through the motions, assometimes can happen in schools.
So you put all of those thingstogether and it's a recipe for
(22:50):
great success.
George M. Davison (22:51):
Would you say participation at your school?
Do you have much absenteeism?
What do you think keeps kidscoming back to your school?
Larry Connelly (23:01):
I think this is an example of something that
helps keep kids coming to school.
Karen would be the first totell you when presentations are
coming.
Our attendance is at itshighest without a doubt, all of
a sudden, the eighth graders.
Overall our attendance at ourschool is good but having said
that, it is noticeably betterleading into the contest.
(23:24):
So it definitely the studentsfeel, not just because of the
work that put into it, but thatownership the part of the team
and not wanting to let theirteam down.
All of those things play a rolein it.
But I definitely think, a thestudents having a purpose and B
the students having a lot of funwith what they're doing, those
(23:44):
absolutely play a role ingetting students to school.
Karen Garland (23:48):
And I also think our contest it's a day-long
event and so half of the eighthgraders will present their
product and it's a day Like theydress, some of them
professionally, some of them.
I've had kids walk in in atuxedo.
I've had kids with t-shirts.
They have their logos made onthe front.
I've had kids, I mean, theyreally dress the part.
(24:10):
If they have a kitchen product,they're coming in in a chef's
hat.
Sometimes I never know what'sgoing to walk in the door, but
they know to be schoolappropriate.
So not only does the half ofthe student body that's
presenting, they're excited,they're engaged, they can't wait
, but the other half wants to bethere, they want to know how
this team did, how thisinvention did, how are the
(24:32):
judges?
I mean, it's a day and theseventh graders hear about it,
the sixth graders hear about it.
So I would say, usually when wehave one of our contests, half
of the class, one, two mightmiss and that's it out of the
whole class.
So we and that's because, likeparents, like this past contest,
(24:52):
parents took vacation toFlorida and the student was not
happy, they were not happy.
So we had them virtually, youknow, fed in and he was
virtually there, but that wasn'treally good enough, but it was
what it was.
So we just have one, two At themost.
I think we've had three on thatday.
George M. Davison (25:12):
Well, I'm glad the students are enjoying
that experience.
It sounds like teachers andeverybody's getting this
experience in a good way.
Absolutely.
Thank you for sharing yourexperience with our audience and
myself.
It's been very helpful, larry.
Thank you, my pleasure, thankyou, yeah, karen, thank you very
much.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
(25:34):
Today.
Bye now.
Steven Ruffing (25:38):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
Join us next time as wecontinue to explore the worlds
of inspiration, creation,innovation and production.
Discover more attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
Connect with us on social mediaat TWT.
Explore and find us whereverpodcasts are available.
Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
We sit down with experts,world-changing innovators,
creators and makers to explorehow they're taking action to
make tomorrow's world a betterplace for technology, science,
innovation, sustainability, thearts and more.
Host George Davison, who isalso the host of the TV series,
(00:23):
tomorrow's World Today, sitsdown with Grove City Middle
School principal Larry Connollyand teacher Karen Garland about
how Inventionland Educationengages 8th grade students with
a STEM and STEAM curriculum.
The program culminates in aninvention contest that fosters
real-world problem-solving andboosts student attendance.
George M. Davison (00:44):
Hello everybody, and welcome to
another edition of Tomorrow'sWorld Today.
Well, today we have theprincipal and the teacher, who
are really involved withInventionland Education and the
invention contest that we justhad, and their students just won
the big award this year.
And so please welcome KarenGarland, who teaches the course,
(01:06):
and the principal of the school, larry Conley, welcome, thank
you.
So how exciting is this Very.
Your students worked very hard,didn't they?
Karen Garland (01:16):
So proud yes.
George M. Davison (01:18):
It was a big day.
We had a lot of folks runningaround through Inventionland.
But, yeah, your students werevery well prepared and they had
been through the course and theyprepared for those judges in a
way that they made it look likeit was easy.
Larry Connelly (01:33):
We have great students, but also two great
teachers in the program, sothey're always well prepared.
George M. Davison (01:38):
Yes, so let's talk a little bit about you
know how did this course happento get to your school?
What school are you with?
Grove City Middle School.
Grove City Middle School.
How did it get to?
Larry Connelly (01:51):
your school, so it would have been probably
seven or eight years ago Ourcurrent superintendent it was
his idea to kind of look into it.
He had some familiarity withInventionland and the education
program with Inventionland.
We came for a visit.
We were blown away at thefacility, at the people that we
met and talked to, and at thatpoint we started conversations
(02:14):
of how we can make this work inour school.
We visited some other schoolsthat were implementing the
Inventionland curriculum,learned some things from them
and got some professionaldevelopment for our team on how
to implement it.
And then we kind of made it ourown and came up with a way,
looking for ways to engage ourstudents, to get them more
(02:35):
involved in STEAM-relatedactivities, critical thinking,
collaboration, and just checkedall the boxes.
George M. Davison (02:43):
Wow, and just checked all the boxes.
Wow, so that actively lookingto you know give your students a
leg up or something that mighthelp them with their future.
Is that a way?
Is that something, actively,that you do?
Larry Connelly (02:56):
Absolutely, and it's something different.
Obviously, I believe all thecourses that we offer are
valuable in their own way, butthe Inventionland course is very
unique.
I love visiting the classbecause the kids tell me the
story of what's going on.
That doesn't always happen.
When I walk into all classrooms, you know, I might hear
teachers telling me what's goingon the Inventionland.
(03:19):
The kids are running the show.
The teachers obviously aredoing a phenomenal job of
preparing them for it, but thestudents are really running the
show, just like these youngladies did with the untie knot,
and it's really exciting to seeit really is and, Karen, you're
teaching the class right, I amHow's that going.
Karen Garland (03:38):
I love it.
I absolutely love it.
Ben English and I, we bothteach it.
So we have students, we teachsixth grade, seventh grade and
eighth grade, so we see allthree grades but we offer the
class in eighth grade only.
But the sixth graders cominginto the school, they come up to
both of us to say we'rethinking about an invention,
(03:58):
we're thinking about aninvention.
And we kind of have to slowtheir roll a little bit because
they're not quite there.
But we say tuck those ideasaway, you're going to be working
with a team.
So it's not your idea, it'sgoing to be a team idea and it
just by the time they get toeighth grade they're motivated,
they're excited, they're reallylooking forward to the program.
(04:19):
And then Mr in English and Iwe've been doing it for a few
years now.
We've tried different ways toteach the program.
Administration ouradministration has given us
great support and flexibility todo so.
So that has really helped us asteachers as well, to try, maybe
fail, and to be better.
So over the years we've kind oftweaked the class to our works
(04:43):
for us and we're in a nicegroove right now so and not only
just helps the students, but ithas helped us be better
teachers as well well, that'sexciting.
George M. Davison (04:53):
I mean because you've been teaching the
course long enough now to seethe the outcomes yes what sort
of outcomes are we seeing fromyour students?
Because you don't have thiscourse in high school yet you
have it in middle school.
Karen Garland (05:07):
Eighth grade only .
Yes.
George M. Davison (05:08):
So can we chat a little bit about?
You know when the students arefinished in eighth grade.
You know what are you seeing,and then do you track any of
these kids as they're movinginto high school?
So, I will yeah.
Karen Garland (05:22):
I'll share some outcomes with you.
So we have the planned outcomes.
Everybody goes through thenine-step process.
You'll have an invention,you'll pitch, we'll have a
school contest.
That happens but because we seeevery student, so they might
have an individual educationplan, they might have a
particular type of challenge.
(05:42):
We see all of them.
They also have individualchallenges and goals for
themselves and you could seethat really come out.
Their talents come out in theirown way because we have teams.
So typically I'll have six,seven, eight teams.
Each team I kind of treat as anindividual student.
(06:03):
So I can kind of really I don'tknow personally modify the
class to each team.
So if each team is strugglingin technology, I'll give them a
little more help with technology.
If they're struggling withcommunication, we form a
different plan on theirpresentation style.
(06:24):
So they each have individualgoals.
So what they accomplish, I seeevery team accomplishes
something different.
But also individually I seeachievements that only a teacher
would recognize and I'm goingto share a story with you.
That is one of my favoritestories, but I don't know if I
should, but I'm going to anyway.
(06:45):
So one of my students, his goalwas to not speak a certain way
during the presentation.
He would often use a word thatwas not acceptable at school,
okay.
So that was his challenge, thatwas his goal.
When you speak, you're notallowed to say this particular
word, and we practice andpractice and he did it and he
(07:06):
did it.
So nobody in this universewould ever know that was a goal
for him.
As a teacher, I knew it and hedid it and it was an
accomplishment that we havetalked about to this day.
So there's goals andachievements that these students
they tackle.
Goals and achievements thatthese students they tackle, they
(07:27):
accomplish, and I see a senseof pride, tremendous pride.
It's tough to fail and keepgoing, and it's tough when
you're frustrated and you haveto keep going, and I do think
the team mentality helps youwith that.
So, because they're on a teamtypically three, sometimes two
or four, but typically threethey support each other.
When one's not there, the twoor four, but typically three
they support each other.
When one's not there, the otherones will pick up the slack.
(07:48):
Sometimes they get along,sometimes they're with their
friends, sometimes they're notwith their friends, and they
learn how to work with peoplethat they may never have spoken
to otherwise.
So there's so manyaccomplishments.
I'll stop there, but theaccomplishments are vast.
George M. Davison (08:03):
Well, thanks for sharing the story with us.
That's wonderful.
You know it's a.
This is an emerging part of youknow what we do today and how
we teach our kids.
So you know, applied STEM, orSTEAM as we call it today.
It's it sounds like you'reactually applying some of what
we teach in the course as ateacher, because you're doing
(08:25):
observational analysis of yourstudents and adjusting it
accordingly Always.
Yeah, that's big customizationthere.
That's pretty good it is yes,it's outstanding, it's great
work so, but you know, gettingan opportunity to shape young
minds that way, as powerful asthat is, it, does take some work
(08:46):
to get it through theadministration, doesn't it?
I mean, how did that happen?
Because some schools they haveset curriculums and set times.
How did you squeeze this courseinto your already busy schedule
?
Larry Connelly (09:00):
It took a little bit of creativity, a lot of
conversations.
We were fortunate we had anadvantage in that the way our
schedule was built.
Karen taught business as arelated arts nine weeks class in
eighth grade.
Ben taught tech engineeringalready built into the schedule.
We had to redo things to makeit a semester long class that
(09:21):
they taught invention landtogether, semester-long class
that they taught invention landtogether.
So it took some tweaks and somechanges but and a lot of
conversations, a lot of dialogueand when we landed on it I
think we all were a little bitskeptical that it might work the
way we hoped.
But it worked better than whatwe even anticipated.
It has been, and Ben and Karenwould be the first to tell you
(09:44):
they don't always do things thesame way, they don't always see
things the same way, but theywould, I think, also agree that
there's value in that thestudents work with both of them
equally and it's been a greatpartnership.
George M. Davison (09:59):
You know, impact in the community with the
parents.
How do the parents react?
Well, you know these kids areworking so hard.
They also take them, take theprojects home, you know, to
their homes during the weekendsor whenever else.
Have you had any feedback fromthe parents?
Larry Connelly (10:16):
Great feedback.
Yes, it is.
Again, I don't want to say putone class above another, but
overall the Inventionland coursethey do, and we've had some
parents who maybe homeschooltheir children and they want to
(10:44):
send their child to the middleschool just for Inventionland
and then homeschool themotherwise.
So there's a variety of waysthat we have seen and heard from
parents about the respect thatthey have for the Inventionland
course.
George M. Davison (10:57):
That's wonderful.
That's great to hear.
Thank you for sharing that, ofcourse.
Karen Garland (11:00):
Can I add one more thing to that, of course?
So not only do we have parentalsupport, for sure, but we also
reach out to a lot of communitymembers, businesses that are
local, to help with students.
So we have Wabtec, used to beGeneral Electric.
They'll come in and they'reengineers and they'll kind of
sit with our students and we'llgo over things and problem solve
(11:23):
, because some of these problemsget kind of difficult for them,
and I am not an engineer.
So we encourage companies topartnership with our district
and our school and we also takelike we had an invention that
had to do with candy.
In fact they won a competition.
They melted, like JollyRanchers, and added something
(11:44):
and turned it into a straw.
It was called Sweet Straw.
So we have House Coffee.
They also make candy.
So we took the students toHouse Coffee and they got to
talk to and interview candymakers.
So we have a lot of businesses.
George M. Davison (12:00):
Yes stickers.
Karen Garland (12:00):
So we have a lot of businesses.
We had an eyeglass product onetime and we went to the optical
companies in Grove City to haveher do some market research.
So she handed out surveys tocommunity members that would
come in and get their glassesrepaired or prescribed.
So we have, we've reached outand really pulled in businesses.
(12:21):
This is my second career.
My first career was astockbroker, so bringing the
real world into education hasbeen a passion of mine since
I've started teaching.
I think that real worldconnection is super important,
not just businesses to know whatwe do at schools and for these
young people, but I think theyoung people need to know this
(12:43):
is do at schools and for theseyoung people, but I think the
young people need to know thisis a real deal.
Like the two studentsinterviewed today for your
podcast.
This is real.
They're seeing everyone who'sproducing and managing and
running the camera and the sound.
It's a lot more than you'd everexpect, so they're getting
introduced to the real world.
Yeah, they really are.
George M. Davison (12:58):
I mean Sam and Olivia.
So they're getting introducedto the real world.
Yeah, they really are.
I mean Sam and Olivia.
They did the untie knot whichis in front of us today.
This was their invention, theywon with and they figured out.
You know, they figured out alot.
They figured out raw material,science, manufacturing
methodologies, graphic design,package design and a lot more,
(13:18):
but all real world and appliedright.
And so, yes, I'm learning math,I'm learning English, but
applying all of that in myproject is so wonderful, because
now I understand why are theyteaching me this and why are
they teaching me that.
Karen Garland (13:33):
Well, now you know why, you can start to see
how the real world works rightand plus the soft skills you
know, the communication and thecollaboration, problem solving
and just time management is huge.
They don't always finish thingsin class, so do they use their.
(13:53):
It's kind of like a study halltime we give them in their
schedule, so they'll kind offigure out okay, should I get
this done, or go to Invention,lean and work on this?
They work on it at home and theweekends, like was said, so
time management is reallyimportant as well.
George M. Davison (14:07):
That's interesting.
So your students, if they're,if they have a break or study
hall, they can go back to theirinnovation lab.
Yes, and work on the project.
That's good.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's good for me to know.
Project.
That's good.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's good for me to know.
Now, did you have to talk withthe school board or anything to
change anything else to get thiscourse?
(14:27):
We're in there.
What other approvals did youhave to go through?
Larry Connelly (14:31):
There was not a formal pitch to the school board
for signing the contract.
The board did have to approvethe purchase of the curriculum
and we have, for what it's worthgiven, because we're so proud
of how successful we've been andthe outcomes we've had.
We have definitely updated theschool board frequently.
We also include school boardmembers in our local contest at
(14:55):
Grove City Middle School to bejudges and they always love
doing that and walk awayincredibly impressed.
So we don't at this pointcertainly have to sell the board
on the program because it hassold itself Right, because
you've had it for eight years.
Karen Garland (15:10):
Seven or eight years.
George M. Davison (15:11):
Seven or eight years now, so you've had
enough time to really, you know,get immersed in it, and I'm
glad to hear you've tweaked it alittle bit.
I'll take some of that back toour team as well.
Do you have a?
If you were to look forwardinto the future a little bit,
what do you think you knoweducation at your school looks
like?
I mean, in tomorrow's world, ifyou could continue down the
(15:34):
path of STEM and STEAM andinspiring your students this way
real world teaching likereal-world application what do
you think long-term that leadsto?
Larry Connelly (15:45):
I think long-term it leads to, you know,
we talk more aboutcompetency-based outcomes, you
know, and not necessarily abouttrying to get a 90%, whatever
that is or whatever it might be,but competencies and skills.
And so you know, I thinkInventionland is a perfect
example of a program that Karenwould be the first to tell you
(16:06):
she doesn't care what grade theyget, and sometimes it's
difficult for her to even make agrade tied to what these young
ladies did.
So that's kind of, you know,looking at the skills that we
can grow in students throughother programs and making other
courses more outcome-based asopposed to memorizing or
(16:26):
regurgitating information, thosekinds of things.
Karen Garland (16:29):
I think thinking I know that sounds so simple,
but when students talk abouttheir experience and they talk
about how, yeah, we just kind ofhad to think about this, that's
a teacher's dream, like theyhad to think and just being free
to think and I think that ispart of education is you need
(16:51):
that freedom to think.
You need all of the lessonsfrom all of the courses,
definitely, definitely.
I also, I just think it'simportant to have the freedom to
explore, the comfort and thesupport to think and try and
learn.
It's just as simple, but it'sit's.
I think it's over overlooked.
You just have to have thefreedom to think and the freedom
(17:13):
to learn and experience.
So I, that's, I think, is is thefuture, is pulling things
together to make it all fitRight.
And I also think it's reallyimportant that customization we
talked about it and learning anddoing whatever it is you feel
you're good at do it, you can doit.
(17:33):
So I think this program isgreat at really highlighting
students' strengths.
Poor at me and they just fly,and I've seen it with every
single type of student and Iwould say the same thing I
really would.
They might not win the contest,they might not get an A which.
I don't know how often thathappens, but I would say that's
(17:56):
one of the strengths of thistype of education.
George M. Davison (18:00):
So, from a teacher's perspective, if you
were able to talk to otherteachers out there, what do you
think you would share with them?
Like prior to knowing aboutInventionland If I'm a little
fearful and I'm not, you know Ididn't go to school to teach
teaching anything other than,let's say, english, and now I'm
(18:21):
being asked to maybe teach acourse like this.
What would you share with ateacher in that situation?
Karen Garland (18:29):
this.
What would you share with ateacher in that situation?
So when I first learned aboutInventionland, I was teaching a
class and we called itentrepreneurship and it was kind
of similar in that they wouldcome up with students would come
up with their own type ofcompany on an individual basis,
their own company, and so Ireally liked the program and I
actually didn't want to give itup.
I really liked my class, mycurriculum, but of course I was
(18:51):
open to this and just took offwith it.
So I would advise teachers thatare going to try to teach
Inventionland a program similarI think first you have to be
absolutely open.
I think you have to be almostthe student of Inventionland
first, not being afraid to try,because I've tried a couple of
(19:14):
different things how many weeksshould the program be?
What order?
I've tried lots of differentthings.
So I think if you expectstudents to go through this
process, you have to be willingto go through a similar process.
And so I think being open,being flexible, trying and see
if that works and why doesn't it, a lot of self-reflection as
(19:35):
well, I think all of that isneeded just within the teacher,
their attitude really, and theircommitment to the success of a
program like this, and thenafter that it's just hard work,
yeah.
Steven Ruffing (19:49):
Yeah.
Karen Garland (19:50):
But it's rewarding, it's super rewarding,
obviously.
George M. Davison (19:53):
Right, because, as a teacher, you want
to have that engagement withyour students.
Oh, absolutely 100%.
And are you feeling as thoughyou're making an impact?
Karen Garland (20:02):
Yes.
George M. Davison (20:03):
Yes.
Karen Garland (20:04):
Yes, because I have known the students in sixth
grade and seventh grade, but ona very individual basis and
only for nine weeks at a timewhen I see eighth graders for an
entire 18 weeks and, like Isaid, they're in teams of three
and so I get to know them as aperson and as a team and how
they work.
They also see me as I thinkdifferently as a teacher work.
(20:29):
They also see me as I thinkdifferently as a teacher.
I think by the time they see mein eighth grade they see I just
want to support you and want tomake you a better you.
So they might think I'm alittle hard on them or I asked
them questions they don't haveanswers to.
You know I get the eye rollsand the gasps, but they get
through it and then the nextweek they are just on their way
(20:51):
and they see it.
So I think going through thatprocess with me when they leave
the middle school and I'm so sadwhen they do every time eighth
grade leaves you develop arelationship through those
struggles with students and theyabsolutely develop a sense of
confidence and pride inthemselves as well.
George M. Davison (21:11):
So what I heard was you got into the
teaching profession and you'regetting what you were hoping to
get out of becoming a teacher.
Karen Garland (21:20):
Absolutely 100%.
George M. Davis (21:22):
Congratulations , you're doing a great job.
Karen Garland (21:24):
Thank you.
George M. Davison (21:25):
Thank you.
Your students represent youwell.
Larry, how about if you wereable to talk to you know a
person like yourself, asuperintendent, a principal, and
you had never heard ofInventionland?
I mean, if you were to talk tosomebody like that, what could
you share with them to help themunderstand why this might help
(21:46):
their community?
Larry Connelly (21:47):
Well, I think, first of all, the one thing that
blows me away, that we'vealready spoken about, is just
the number of skills thatstudents utilize in the course.
Any school administrator, anyteacher, would want to see
students, you know, thinkingcritically, making things with
their hands, working withtechnology, working on
(22:07):
presentation skills,collaborating, working with
others.
The list goes on.
The number of skills that areinvolved is how could you say no
to that?
How could you not want that foryour students?
On top of it, those skills arealso connected to the real world
and things that they're goingto.
They're going to benefit themwhen they get to ninth grade,
when they get to high school,when they get beyond high school
(22:29):
.
And finally, and maybe equallyas important, the engagement,
the excitement.
We want students to be excitedto tell us about what they
learned, what they just made,what they created, and not just
going through the motions, assometimes can happen in schools.
So you put all of those thingstogether and it's a recipe for
(22:50):
great success.
George M. Davison (22:51):
Would you say participation at your school?
Do you have much absenteeism?
What do you think keeps kidscoming back to your school?
Larry Connelly (23:01):
I think this is an example of something that
helps keep kids coming to school.
Karen would be the first totell you when presentations are
coming.
Our attendance is at itshighest without a doubt, all of
a sudden, the eighth graders.
Overall our attendance at ourschool is good but having said
that, it is noticeably betterleading into the contest.
(23:24):
So it definitely the studentsfeel, not just because of the
work that put into it, but thatownership the part of the team
and not wanting to let theirteam down.
All of those things play a rolein it.
But I definitely think, a thestudents having a purpose and B
the students having a lot of funwith what they're doing, those
(23:44):
absolutely play a role ingetting students to school.
Karen Garland (23:48):
And I also think our contest it's a day-long
event and so half of the eighthgraders will present their
product and it's a day Like theydress, some of them
professionally, some of them.
I've had kids walk in in atuxedo.
I've had kids with t-shirts.
They have their logos made onthe front.
I've had kids, I mean, theyreally dress the part.
(24:10):
If they have a kitchen product,they're coming in in a chef's
hat.
Sometimes I never know what'sgoing to walk in the door, but
they know to be schoolappropriate.
So not only does the half ofthe student body that's
presenting, they're excited,they're engaged, they can't wait
, but the other half wants to bethere, they want to know how
this team did, how thisinvention did, how are the
(24:32):
judges?
I mean, it's a day and theseventh graders hear about it,
the sixth graders hear about it.
So I would say, usually when wehave one of our contests, half
of the class, one, two mightmiss and that's it out of the
whole class.
So we and that's because, likeparents, like this past contest,
(24:52):
parents took vacation toFlorida and the student was not
happy, they were not happy.
So we had them virtually, youknow, fed in and he was
virtually there, but that wasn'treally good enough, but it was
what it was.
So we just have one, two At themost.
I think we've had three on thatday.
George M. Davison (25:12):
Well, I'm glad the students are enjoying
that experience.
It sounds like teachers andeverybody's getting this
experience in a good way.
Absolutely.
Thank you for sharing yourexperience with our audience and
myself.
It's been very helpful, larry.
Thank you, my pleasure, thankyou, yeah, karen, thank you very
much.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
(25:34):
Today.
Bye now.
Steven Ruffing (25:38):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
Join us next time as wecontinue to explore the worlds
of inspiration, creation,innovation and production.
Discover more attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
Connect with us on social mediaat TWT.
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