What is “GIFT”
The Global Innovation Field Trip (GIFT) is a 24-hour, live, on-line event from Innovation World and Invent Future Global where students in grades K to 12 can give 10-20 minute presentations about anything they have done involving innovation, invention and creativity. GIFT’s are held quarterly and in almost 2 years have featured nearly 600 innovators from 42 countries giving over 400 presentations on a wide variety of creative, new and innovative topics and projects.
GIFT October 2021
The most recent GIFT was held last October 16-17, 2021 and WonderfullyMadeKids Homeschool had the privilege to be part of it.
We were able to share our passion for creating with Canva to a global audience, including our recent World Animal Day “Adopt a Pet. Save a Life!” Poster-Making Event with The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).
Other Kid Presenters
There are were many young and amazing kids who shared their inventions and creative innovations. Among them are sisters Sriya and Jiya, 5 and 9 year old students from India who shared about recycling crafts and their inventions involving remote-controlled devices. Kayra, a 16-year old student from Istanbul showed his 3D printed fish scale-based artificial skin graft invention. A 6-year old boy from the U.S. named Nirbhuy invented a remote-controlled scooty brush. Runjeet, a senior high school student from the U.S. invented “Ticcer” which is a medical device that can help people with Tourette syndrome manage their tics. He made this for his brother who has Tourette syndrome. Manvi is an 11-year old coder from New Jersey who showed her coding projects integrating subject lessons into games and digital art.
Others who were there were young people who have won in previous competitions. Antonio who is in Grade 8 was one of them, being the 2020 Young Inventors Challenge Best Learning Concept Senior Division winner and current King of the Board. Robert, a Grade 5 inventor from the U.K. and his friend Hoshika, who is Grade 6 from India are the Invent Future Global Young Ambassadors for 2021 and they talked about space and its importance to society.
These are but a few, and it truly was an extraordinary opportunity to share and and all the presentations from GIFT October 2021 as well as the previous GIFT events can be viewed in the GIFT YouTube Channel found here:
ADULT Speakers
There were also a lot of speakers who shared their inventions and innovations as well as how they are promoting STEM in different areas of interest. Here are but a few of them:
Mezzacello Urban Farm – Jim Bruner is the Sultan of Systems and Alpha Farmer at Mezzacello. He started “Project Martian” at the beginning of the COVID19 lockdown and designed a sustainable way to be able to grow food and access fresh water in any location on the earth, the Moon, and even on Mars. His came up with a Bioreactor design to develop soil rich in nutrients and sufficient to turn any dirt matrix into rich nutritious soil.
Project Invent – Jordan Mareno shared about Project Invent, a nonprofit organization that empowers high school students to invent technologies that make the world a better place. They have a free digital curriculum on their website that is designed to help any educator introduce invention intro their classroom. You can sign up to download it here: Project Invent Free Download
STEM Fast Track – Teresa Janowski talked about her real-life mentoring program called STEM Mista and STEM Sista. Her program shows high school students the possibilities of STEM careers and cultivating young minds that will one day pioneer the technological advancements of tomorrow.
My Machine Global Foundation – Piet Grymonprez discussed how their methodology “enables young people to be self-motivated, creative, problem-solvers, innovators, entrepreneurs, or creators.” They help young kids in primary schools invent “dream machines” which university students and technical/vocational students would eventually build prototypes of. It is a collaborative effort among all educational levels and even companies who partner with them for essentially the whole year from initital design to actual production.
Why Toyz – Petra Rees, a strong advocate for bosltering STEAM education in early childhood development curricula talkd about the how they use 3D printing to grow innovative thinkers and entrepreneurial mindset.
Current Innovation Challenges that kids can join
Kyra – Liza Stephanie is the Chief Creative of Krya and she talked about the International Kids Conference to support the United Nation in commemorating the World’s Children Day. It’s a platform to voice out and connect children around the world through sharing their creative ideas and innovative projects. The application to joing the International Kids Conference this November is still open for submissions until November 8, 2021. Click here to learn more:
People of Play/Chicago Toy and Game Group – Karen Luciana is the Director of the Young Inventors’ Challenge, an amazing opportunity for children ages 6 to 18 to develop and pitch their original inventions to major toy and game companies, industry professionals, members of the media and general public. Deadline for registration is on October 31, 2021. Click here to register:
Tailored Food – Taylor Quinn is a social entrepreneur and passionate mentor dedicated to designing and implementing nutritious low-cost food systems. His work is about building food systems that are nutritious, delicious, affordable, and local. He launched the Delicious and Nutritious K-12 Food Challenge which will have kids research about local nutritious foods and create a marketing campaign for it with a flyer, brochure, and a 15-30 second commercial. The deadline for this will be on December 18, 2021 and the top challengers will be able to present their work at the next GIFT on January 16, 2022. Click here for more information:
Thank you!
We are grateful to Jake Mendelssohn and Juli Shively, as well as the rest of the Global Innovation Field Trip team, for giving us this amazing opportunity to share our story. We also want to thank Jim Bruner and Ms. Aimee Ashcraft for all the encouragement during our presentation.
Grateful too for all who support us at wonderfullymadekids.com especially those who join our activities at Canva for Kids Learning Group on Facebook. We’re looking forward to creating and learning more with you!
