Tomorrow’s World Today® Podcast
It all starts with one idea. Visit the Worlds of Inspiration, Creation, Innovation, and Production as we explore the topics shaping tomorrow’s world. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Tomorrow’s World Today® Podcast
Inside the Classroom: How Grove City Middle School Uses Inventionland Education to Inspire Students
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.
For more information about the innovations that are shaping tomorrow's world, head to https://tomorrowsworldtoday.com/
To keep up-to-date with the latest in innovation, technology, sustainability, and more connect with us on social:
YouTube
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast. We sit down with experts, world-changing innovators, creators and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts and more. Host George Davison, who is also the host of the TV series, tomorrow's World Today, sits down with Grove City Middle School principal Larry Connolly and teacher Karen Garland about how Inventionland Education engages 8th grade students with a STEM and STEAM curriculum. The program culminates in an invention contest that fosters real-world problem-solving and boosts student attendance.
George M. Davison:Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow's World Today. Well, today we have the principal and the teacher, who are really involved with Inventionland Education and the invention contest that we just had, and their students just won the big award this year. And so please welcome Karen Garland, who teaches the course, 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:So proud yes.
George M. Davison:It was a big day. We had a lot of folks running around through Inventionland. But, yeah, your students were very well prepared and they had been through the course and they prepared for those judges in a way that they made it look like it was easy.
Larry Connelly:We have great students, but also two great teachers in the program, so they're always well prepared.
George M. Davison:Yes, so let's talk a little bit about you know how did this course happen to get to your school? What school are you with? Grove City Middle School. Grove City Middle School. How did it get to?
Larry Connelly:your school, so it would have been probably seven or eight years ago Our current superintendent it was his idea to kind of look into it. He had some familiarity with Inventionland and the education program with Inventionland. We came for a visit. We were blown away at the facility, at the people that we met and talked to, and at that point we started conversations of how we can make this work in our school. We visited some other schools that were implementing the Inventionland curriculum, learned some things from them and got some professional development for our team on how to implement it. And then we kind of made it our own and came up with a way, looking for ways to engage our students, to get them more involved in STEAM-related activities, critical thinking, collaboration, and just checked all the boxes.
George M. Davison:Wow, and just checked all the boxes. Wow, so that actively looking to you know give your students a leg up or something that might help them with their future. Is that a way? Is that something, actively, that you do?
Larry Connelly:Absolutely, and it's something different. Obviously, I believe all the courses that we offer are valuable in their own way, but the Inventionland course is very unique. I love visiting the class because 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 going on the Inventionland. The kids are running the show. The teachers obviously are doing a phenomenal job of preparing them for it, but the students are really running the show, just like these young ladies did with the untie knot, and it's really exciting to see it really is and, Karen, you're teaching the class right, I am How's that going.
Karen Garland:I love it. I absolutely love it. Ben English and I, we both teach it. So we have students, we teach sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade, so we see all three grades but we offer the class in eighth grade only. But the sixth graders coming into the school, they come up to both of us to say we're thinking about an invention, we're thinking about an invention. And we kind of have to slow their roll a little bit because they're not quite there. But we say tuck those ideas away, you're going to be working with a team. So it's not your idea, it's going to be a team idea and it just by the time they get to eighth grade they're motivated, they're excited, they're really looking forward to the program.
Karen Garland:And then Mr in English and I we've been doing it for a few years now. We've tried different ways to teach the program. Administration our administration has given us great support and flexibility to do so. So that has really helped us as teachers as well, to try, maybe fail, and to be better. So over the years we've kind of tweaked the class to our works for us and we're in a nice groove right now so and not only just helps the students, but it has helped us be better teachers as well well, that's exciting.
George M. Davison:I mean because you've been teaching the course long enough now to see the the outcomes yes what sort of outcomes are we seeing from your students? Because you don't have this course in high school yet you have it in middle school.
Karen Garland:Eighth grade only. Yes.
George M. Davison:So can we chat a little bit about? You know when the students are finished in eighth grade. You know what are you seeing, and then do you track any of these kids as they're moving into high school? So, I will yeah.
Karen Garland:I'll share some outcomes with you.
Karen Garland:So we have the planned outcomes. Everybody goes through the nine-step process. You'll have an invention, you'll pitch, we'll have a school contest. That happens but because we see every student, so they might have an individual education plan, they might have a particular type of challenge. We see all of them. They also have individual challenges and goals for themselves and you could see that really come out. Their talents come out in their own way because we have teams.
Karen Garland:So typically I'll have six, seven, eight teams. Each team I kind of treat as an individual student. So I can kind of really I don't know personally modify the class to each team. So if each team is struggling in technology, I'll give them a little more help with technology. If they're struggling with communication, we form a different plan on their presentation style. So they each have individual goals. So what they accomplish, I see every team accomplishes something different.
Karen Garland:But also individually I see achievements that only a teacher would recognize and I'm going to share a story with you. That is one of my favorite stories, but I don't know if I should, but I'm going to anyway. So one of my students, his goal was to not speak a certain way during the presentation. He would often use a word that was not acceptable at school, okay. So that was his challenge, that was his goal. When you speak, you're not allowed to say this particular word, and we practice and practice and he did it and he did it. So nobody in this universe would ever know that was a goal for him. As a teacher, I knew it and he did it and it was an accomplishment that we have talked about to this day.
Karen Garland:So there's goals and achievements that these students they tackle. Goals and achievements that these students they tackle, they accomplish, and I see a sense of pride, tremendous pride. It's tough to fail and keep going, and it's tough when you're frustrated and you have to keep going, and I do think the team mentality helps you with that. So, because they're on a team typically three, sometimes two or four, but typically three they support each other. When one's not there, the two or four, but typically three they support each other. When one's not there, the other ones will pick up the slack. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they're with their friends, sometimes they're not with their friends, and they learn how to work with people that they may never have spoken to otherwise. So there's so many accomplishments. I'll stop there, but the accomplishments are vast.
George M. Davison:Well, thanks for sharing the story with us. That's wonderful. You know it's a. This is an emerging part of you know what we do today and how we teach our kids. So you know, applied STEM, or STEAM as we call it today. It's it sounds like you're actually applying some of what we teach in the course as a teacher, because you're doing observational analysis of your students and adjusting it accordingly Always. Yeah, that's big customization there.
George M. Davison:That's pretty good it is yes, it's outstanding, it's great work so, but you know, getting an opportunity to shape young minds that way, as powerful as that is, it, does take some work to get it through the administration, doesn't it? I mean, how did that happen? Because some schools they have set curriculums and set times. How did you squeeze this course into your already busy schedule?
Larry Connelly:It took a little bit of creativity, a lot of conversations. We were fortunate we had an advantage in that the way our schedule was built. Karen taught business as a related arts nine weeks class in eighth grade. Ben taught tech engineering already built into the schedule. We had to redo things to make it a semester long class that they taught invention land together, semester-long class that they taught invention land together. So it took some tweaks and some changes but and a lot of conversations, a lot of dialogue and when we landed on it I think we all were a little bit skeptical that it might work the way we hoped. But it worked better than what we even anticipated. It has been, and Ben and Karen would be the first to tell you they don't always do things the same way, they don't always see things the same way, but they would, I think, also agree that there's value in that the students work with both of them equally and it's been a great partnership.
George M. Davison:You know, impact in the community with the parents. How do the parents react? Well, you know these kids are working so hard. They also take them, take the projects home, you know, to their homes during the weekends or whenever else. Have you had any feedback from the parents?
Larry Connelly:Great feedback. Yes, it is. Again, I don't want to say put one class above another, but overall the Inventionland course they do, and we've had some parents who maybe homeschool their children and they want to send their child to the middle school just for Inventionland and then homeschool them otherwise. So there's a variety of ways that we have seen and heard from parents about the respect that they have for the Inventionland course.
George M. Davison:That's wonderful. That's great to hear. Thank you for sharing that, of course.
Karen Garland:Can I add one more thing to that, of course? So not only do we have parental support, for sure, but we also reach out to a lot of community members, businesses that are local, to help with students. So we have Wabtec, used to be General Electric. They'll come in and they're engineers and they'll kind of sit with our students and we'll go over things and problem solve, because some of these problems get kind of difficult for them, and I am not an engineer. So we encourage companies to partnership with our district and our school and we also take like we had an invention that had to do with candy. In fact they won a competition. They melted, like Jolly Ranchers, and added something 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 to House Coffee and they got to talk to and interview candy makers. So we have a lot of businesses.
George M. Davison:Yes stickers.
Karen Garland:So we have a lot of businesses. We had an eyeglass product one time and we went to the optical companies in Grove City to have her do some market research. So she handed out surveys to community members that would come in and get their glasses repaired or prescribed. So we have, we've reached out and really pulled in businesses. This is my second career. My first career was a stockbroker, so bringing the real world into education has been a passion of mine since I've started teaching. I think that real world connection is super important, not just businesses to know what we do at schools and for these young people, but I think the young people need to know this is do at schools and for these young people, but I think the young people need to know this is a real deal.
Karen Garland:Like the two students interviewed today for your podcast. This is real. They're seeing everyone who's producing and managing and running the camera and the sound. It's a lot more than you'd ever expect, so they're getting introduced to the real world. Yeah, they really are.
George M. Davison:I mean Sam and Olivia. So they're getting introduced to the real world. Yeah, they really are. I mean Sam and Olivia. They did the untie knot which is in front of us today. This was their invention, they won with and they figured out. You know, they figured out a lot. They figured out raw material, science, manufacturing methodologies, graphic design, package design and a lot more, but all real world and applied right. And so, yes, I'm learning math, I'm learning English, but applying all of that in my project is so wonderful, because now I understand why are they teaching me this and why are they teaching me that.
Karen Garland:Well, now you know why, you can start to see how the real world works right and plus the soft skills you know, the communication and the collaboration, problem solving and just time management is huge. They don't always finish things in class, so do they use their. It's kind of like a study hall time we give them in their schedule, so they'll kind of figure out okay, should I get this done, or go to Invention, lean and work on this? They work on it at home and the weekends, like was said, so time management is really important as well.
George M. Davison:That's interesting. So your students, if they're, if they have a break or study hall, they can go back to their innovation 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 with the school board or anything to change anything else to get this course? We're in there. What other approvals did you have to go through?
Larry Connelly:There was not a formal pitch to the school board for signing the contract. The board did have to approve the purchase of the curriculum and we have, for what it's worth given, because we're so proud of how successful we've been and the outcomes we've had. We have definitely updated the school board frequently. We also include school board members in our local contest at Grove City Middle School to be judges and they always love doing that and walk away incredibly impressed. So we don't at this point certainly have to sell the board on the program because it has sold itself Right, because you've had it for eight years.
Karen Garland:Seven or eight years.
George M. Davison: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 a little bit. I'll take some of that back to our team as well. Do you have a? If you were to look forward into the future a little bit, what do you think you know education at your school looks like? I mean, in tomorrow's world, if you could continue down the path of STEM and STEAM and inspiring your students this way real world teaching like real-world application what do you think long-term that leads to?
Larry Connelly:I think long-term it leads to, you know, we talk more about competency-based outcomes, you know, and not necessarily about trying to get a 90%, whatever that is or whatever it might be, but competencies and skills. And so you know, I think Inventionland is a perfect example of a program that Karen would be the first to tell you she doesn't care what grade they get, and sometimes it's difficult for her to even make a grade tied to what these young ladies did. So that's kind of, you know, looking at the skills that we can grow in students through other programs and making other courses more outcome-based as opposed to memorizing or regurgitating information, those kinds of things.
Karen Garland:I think thinking I know that sounds so simple, but when students talk about their experience and they talk about how, yeah, we just kind of had to think about this, that's a teacher's dream, like they had to think and just being free to think and I think that is part of education is you need that freedom to think. You need all of the lessons from all of the courses, definitely, definitely. I also, I just think it's important to have the freedom to explore, the comfort and the support to think and try and learn. It's just as simple, but it's it's. I think it's over overlooked. You just have to have the freedom to think and the freedom to learn and experience.
Karen Garland:So I, that's, I think, is is the future, is pulling things together to make it all fit Right. And I also think it's really important that customization we talked about it and learning and doing whatever it is you feel you're good at do it, you can do it. So I think this program is great at really highlighting students' strengths. Poor at me and they just fly, and I've seen it with every single type of student and I would 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 that happens, but I would say that's one of the strengths of this type of education.
George M. Davison:So, from a teacher's perspective, if you were able to talk to other teachers out there, what do you think you would share with them? Like prior to knowing about Inventionland If I'm a little fearful and I'm not, you know I didn't go to school to teach teaching anything other than, let's say, english, and now I'm being asked to maybe teach a course like this. What would you share with a teacher in that situation?
Karen Garland:this. What would you share with a teacher in that situation? So when I first learned about Inventionland, I was teaching a class and we called it entrepreneurship and it was kind of similar in that they would come up with students would come up with their own type of company on an individual basis, their own company, and so I really liked the program and I actually didn't want to give it up. I really liked my class, my curriculum, but of course I was open to this and just took off with it. So I would advise teachers that are going to try to teach Inventionland a program similar I think first you have to be absolutely open.
Karen Garland:I think you have to be almost the student of Inventionland first, not being afraid to try, because I've tried a couple of different things how many weeks should the program be? What order? I've tried lots of different things. So I think if you expect students to go through this process, you have to be willing to 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 well, I think all of that is needed just within the teacher, their attitude really, and their commitment to the success of a program like this, and then after that it's just hard work, yeah.
Steven Ruffing:Yeah.
Karen Garland:But it's rewarding, it's super rewarding, obviously.
George M. Davison:Right, because, as a teacher, you want to have that engagement with your students. Oh, absolutely 100%. And are you feeling as though you're making an impact?
Karen Garland:Yes.
George M. Davison:Yes.
Karen Garland:Yes, because I have known the students in sixth grade and seventh grade, but on a very individual basis and only for nine weeks at a time when I see eighth graders for an entire 18 weeks and, like I said, they're in teams of three and so I get to know them as a person and as a team and how they work.
Karen Garland:They also see me as I think differently as a teacher work. They also see me as I think differently as a teacher. I think by the time they see me in eighth grade they see I just want to support you and want to make you a better you. So they might think I'm a little hard on them or I asked them questions they don't have answers to. You know I get the eye rolls and the gasps, but they get through it and then the next week they are just on their way and they see it. So I think going through that process with me when they leave the middle school and I'm so sad when they do every time eighth grade leaves you develop a relationship through those struggles with students and they absolutely develop a sense of confidence and pride in themselves as well.
George M. Davison:So what I heard was you got into the teaching profession and you're getting what you were hoping to get out of becoming a teacher.
Karen Garland:Absolutely 100%.
George M. Davison:Congratulations, you're doing a great job.
Karen Garland:Thank you.
George M. Davison:Thank you. Your students represent you well. Larry, how about if you were able to talk to you know a person like yourself, a superintendent, a principal, and you had never heard of Inventionland? I mean, if you were to talk to somebody like that, what could you share with them to help them understand why this might help their community?
Larry Connelly:Well, I think, first of all, the one thing that blows me away, that we've already spoken about, is just the number of skills that students utilize in the course. Any school administrator, any teacher, would want to see students, you know, thinking critically, making things with their hands, working with technology, working on presentation skills, collaborating, working with others. The list goes on. The number of skills that are involved is how could you say no to that? How could you not want that for your students? On top of it, those skills are also connected to the real world and things that they're going to. They're going to benefit them when they get to ninth grade, when they get to high school, when they get beyond high school. And finally, and maybe equally as important, the engagement, the excitement. We want students to be excited to tell us about what they learned, what they just made, what they created, and not just going through the motions, as sometimes can happen in schools. So you put all of those things together and it's a recipe for great success.
George M. Davison:Would you say participation at your school? Do you have much absenteeism? What do you think keeps kids coming back to your school?
Larry Connelly:I think this is an example of something that helps keep kids coming to school. Karen would be the first to tell you when presentations are coming. Our attendance is at its highest without a doubt, all of a sudden, the eighth graders.
Larry Connelly:Overall our attendance at our school is good but having said that, it is noticeably better leading into the contest. So it definitely the students feel, not just because of the work that put into it, but that ownership the part of the team and not wanting to let their team down. All of those things play a role in it. But I definitely think, a the students having a purpose and B the students having a lot of fun with what they're doing, those absolutely play a role in getting students to school.
Karen Garland:And I also think our contest it's a day-long event and so half of the eighth graders will present their product and it's a day Like they dress, some of them professionally, some of them. I've had kids walk in in a tuxedo. I've had kids with t-shirts. They have their logos made on the front. I've had kids, I mean, they really dress the part. If they have a kitchen product, they're coming in in a chef's hat.
Karen Garland:Sometimes I never know what's going to walk in the door, but they know to be school appropriate. So not only does the half of the student body that's presenting, they're excited, they're engaged, they can't wait, but the other half wants to be there, they want to know how this team did, how this invention did, how are the judges? I mean, it's a day and the seventh graders hear about it, the sixth graders hear about it. So I would say, usually when we have one of our contests, half of the class, one, two might miss and that's it out of the whole class. So we and that's because, like parents, like this past contest, parents took vacation to Florida and the student was not happy, they were not happy. So we had them virtually, you know, fed in and he was virtually there, but that wasn't really good enough, but it was what it was. So we just have one, two At the most. I think we've had three on that day.
George M. Davison:Well, I'm glad the students are enjoying that experience. It sounds like teachers and everybody's getting this experience in a good way. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing your experience with our audience and myself. It's been very helpful, larry. Thank you, my pleasure, thank you, yeah, karen, thank you very much. Well, everybody, that's another edition of Tomorrow's World Today. Bye now.
Steven Ruffing:Thank you for listening to this episode of Tomorrow's World Today podcast. Join us next time as we continue to explore the worlds of inspiration, creation, innovation and production. Discover more at tomorrowsworldtodaycom. Connect with us on social media at TWT. Explore and find us wherever podcasts are available.
