Technology is constantly changing, cities are growing, and renewable energy is becoming more and more important. That’s why we need to always be innovative in planning for the future to make our societies inclusive for all. 

Instructions:

Split participants into small groups. Each group should research and learn more about an inventor they find inspiring. It could be someone famous like Gutenberg or someone they know that invented something useful, like their grandfather who is a handyman.  

Each group should then create a presentation based on the information they found and share their information with the rest of the group.  

From the presentations, create a wall of fame for inventors in the meeting room.  

Debrief:  

• Which invention is the most useful in your daily life?  
• Do you think you could invent something?  

Instructions:

Begin by creating a definition of both invention and innovation.  

• Invention: The act of imagining, creating something new 
• Innovation: To Introduce something new to replace something old in some field, reimagining 

Split participants into small groups, with one bingo card per group.  

On the bingo card there are pictures of popular inventions. For each invention, teams must find an innovation that already exists and create their own.  

Ex: Phone > Smartphone > Phone you can control with your mind 

At the end groups share their ideas with the others.

Debrief:  

• Is it hard to find new innovations?  
• Which one would they like to have in real life? 
• Did they find some ecological innovations? Can they make it ecological? 

Instructions:

In groups discuss some problems Scouts and Guides see at camp or in their meeting room, this could be water being wasted, waste disposal, a dripping tap, anything the participants see as an issue that needs to be solved.   

Participants should pick one problem to focus on, and in their groups, design a product that can help to tackle this problem.  

Participants should create a plan of how to create this product using things available at their meeting place or at camp (e.g. Recyclables, pioneering poles, etc.).

Depending on the group’s ideas and abilities, create a prototype of their inventions. This could be a good opportunity to collaborate with an older group to share their skills! 

Create a display of the prototypes and have the groups present their ideas to other groups and leaders.  

Discussion:  

• What issue did you try to solve with your invention? 
• Do you think your idea could help on a larger scale? 
• What do you think is the greatest invention of the 21st century?  
• Is your invention ecologically friendly? If not, how could you make it more ecologically friendly? 
• How do you think you could encourage innovators to create more eco-friendly products? 

Instructions:

Split participants into small groups or patrols. Each group needs to create their own invention.   

Encourage them to work through their idea step by step, starting by talking through their ideas, sketching concepts, choosing materials and then creating prototypes. 

Have them consider what problem their invention could help solve, how to create it in an eco-friendly way, the market for this invention, etc. 

If there is any one in your community that is working in invention or product design, the leaders could invite them in to talk about their process with the groups.

Create displays of the groups work from idea to prototype and have them pitch their inventions to the other groups and members of the community.