Skip to main content
  • Main menu
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
  • Home
  • Tags
  • Invention process

Invention process

Filter By
  • All
  • Text
Found 25 Stories
Now What? game graphic
DO Try This at Home!

Spark!Lab's Now What? Invention Game

Unexpected problems often call for inventive solutions.

Montage of book covers published in the Lemelson Center Studies series
Lemelson Center Books

Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation

Books in the interdisciplinary Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series explore the history of invention and innovation and the work of inventors and the technologies they create.

Detail of Handprints on Hubble book cover, showing astronaut Kathy Sullivan looking out the window of the space shuttle.
Lemelson Center Books

Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention

In the newest book in the Lemelson Center series with MIT Press, the first American woman to walk in space recounts her experiences as part of the team that launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope.

An older woman and a very young boy work together on a hands-on activity
Blog

What Does It Take to Make a Spark!Lab?

Looking at your world through the lens of invention.

The cover of the book, with the title, “Does America Need More Innovators?” in white letters against a dark royal blue background. 3 rectangular “thought bubble” outlines in yellow (upper left), red (center), and white (lower right) overlap beneath the title, and 3 triangular arrows, like a fast forward button, are superimposed across the upper and middle bubbles. “Edited by” is within the yellow bubble and the editors’ names are within the red bubble.
Lemelson Center Books

Does America Need More Innovators?

From the Lemelson Center book series with MIT Press—a critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate, by champions, critics, and reformers of innovation.

Color cover of Popular Neckanics Gagazine, Christmas 1947, with the tagline, “Written so you can’t understand it.” Shows 3 oval-shaped “electronic robot-steered cars,” each with a couple kissing (“necking”) in the passenger seats, traveling down a road.
Blog

Hugo Gernsback's Unconventional Inventions

Hugo Gernsback, the “Father of Science Fiction” was an editor, publisher, author, scientist—and inventor of fantastical necessities.

A sign reads CD STEM Fair Teacher Seminar, Grab Bag Inventing, Session 1: 8:30am, Session 2: 10:00am. Black letters on white background.
Blog

Grab Bag Inventing at the DC STEM Fair

This workshop offered Washington, DC-area teachers the opportunity to learn how to adapt a simple, inventive, skill-building activity for their students.

A pink square on the left and a green square on the right with a black arrow connecting the boxes and pointing from left to right.
Blog

Then and Now

An outwardly seamless shift in Spark!Lab from one set of activities to another.

4 detailed ink drawings on facing pages of a gridded notebook. Left: 3 drawings are labeled Old Style Intermittent Kiln, Fort Warren Mortar Mill, and Steam Mortar Mill Used at Fort Taylor by Brevet-major J. Sanders. Right: Hoffmans Annular Kiln.
Blog

Communicating with Sketches

Sketching is an essential part of the invention process.

The author has set out the tools and instructions needed to repair his son’s bike on the garage floor in front of the bike
Blog

Maintain It

Things break. That’s why maintenance should go hand in hand with innovation.

A TechShop staff member demonstrates a new tool.
Spark!Lab

A Spark!Lab for Grownups

Recently, I got to visit TechShop in nearby Arlington, VA. What I realized following our visit is that TechShop is basically the grownup version of Spark!Lab.

The three Smithsonian staffers who creatively rescued a lost cell phone.
Blog

Creative Problem Solving at Work

A visitor's "lost" cell phone leads to inventive problem solving at the Lemelson Center.

Spark!Lab

Roll Out the Old . . . Bring in the Sound!

As we ready Spark!Lab for its next theme, Things that Make Sound, I interviewed Interpretive Exhibits Coordinator Tim Pula about the process of developing new activities.

Fish toys invented by Jerome Lemelson
Invention Stories

Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

One of the most interesting things about Jerome Lemelson’s toy patents is the way in which they parallel interests that he was pursuing in other fields.

Spark!Lab

Inventing to Fuel the Inventive Thinking of Spark!Lab Visitors

Follow along as our new Interpretive Exhibit Coordinator goes through the invention process to solve a problem in Spark!Lab.

Beyond Words

Video: From Child Scientist to Playful Inventor

What does children’s play have to do with the work of serious scientists?

Beyond Words

Video: Play to the Future

Is the quality and quantity of children’s play changing? How do new electronic and digital technologies affect children at play? How can new technologies provide rich motor and sensory experiences? If play is changing, how will that affect invention?

Beyond Words

Video: All Work and No Play?

Is it important for adults to make time to play? How do work, play, creativity and productivity relate to each other? When is the last time you played?

Beyond Words

Video: Play for Play's Sake (How Do You Describe Play?)

Does play serve a purpose or is the point of play to have no purpose?

The Invention Process broken down into seven "it" phrases.
Places of Invention

Inventing an Exhibition

The exhibition development process uses invention skills and mirrors the invention process generally.

See More Stories

VIEW 2328 Matching Results

Found 2328 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.0687285223368%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 7.1735395189003%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.0927835051546%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 2.9639175257732%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.4312714776632%)
  • Maritime (Relevance: 3.0927835051546%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5103092783505%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.5223367697595%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.8659793814433%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.941580756014%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.2646048109966%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.6512027491409%)
  • Research and development (Relevance: 3.0068728522337%)
  • Telegraph, telephone, and telecommunications (Relevance: 3.393470790378%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 2.9209621993127%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 6.1426116838488%)
❯
Go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History website

About Menu

▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • Explore
    • Blog
    • Invention Stories
    • Places of Invention
    • Beyond Words
  • Study
    • Research Opportunities
    • Archives
    • Lemelson Center Books
    • Lemelson Center Research
    • Symposia & Conferences
  • Try
    • DO Try This at Home!
    • Spark!Lab
    • Spark!Lab Network
    • Encouraging Innovative Thinking
  • About
    • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • News
    • Who We Are
    • FAQ
    • Donate
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • Surprise Me
  • Search
  • Open Drawer
Copyright 2020, Smithsonian Institution, All Rights Reserved
  • DONATE
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print