What's more rewarding than helping a young innovative mind grow? At BKFK, we give teachers the grounds to use our resources to help encourage your students' inventive thinking and earn teacher prizes for your efforts!
Every season, we will provide you with new teachers guides and activity sheets for your class. Your students can store their ideas in their Idea Locker and enter them to relevant bkfk competitions as well. Listed below are some of our teacher guides and activities presented in 4 categories - Inventing/Engineering, Design/Creativity, Altruism and Art/Self Expression. Email us for teacher guides, lesson plans and activities listed below.
Inventing/ Engineering
Activities & lesson plans on Inventing and Engineering are for gadget gurus. Your inventive students love to conceptualize, develop, modify and build products. And here's your chance to inspire them to win big for their innovative ideas.
Winter 2009: Invent A Game Challenge
Entries for online downloadable games
Teacher’s Guide: The Invent A Game Teacher’s Guide will help you guide your students to think like a player and a game designer to come up with innovative game designs & creations. The guide will help you teach problem solving, logic, mechanical reasoning and critical thinking.
Summer 2008: Trash To Treasure CompetitionEntries for inventions made from two or more discarded materials.Teacher’s Guide: The Trash to Treasure guide is set to tap your students' interest in designing and building. We encourage you to use this guide to help your students to investigate, experiment and solve challenging problems.
Winter 2008: Sports Evolution Challenge
Entries for apparel, accessories, boards (snow/water/skate), cycling, fitness/weights, water/aquatic, field, and more.
Teacher’s Guide: An introduction to the Sports Evolution Challenge and the available BKFK activities and tools to indulge your students
Activity 1: Give students an opportunity to rethink the rules and concepts of common sports and practice using inventive thinking techniques to change themActivity 2: Learn about the process of inventing that can be applied to any kind of inventing, innovation and creative problem-solvingActivity 3: Make a sport of school activities and academics
BKFK Inventive Thinking ToolkitDeveloped in association with the Rothschild Patent Model Museum and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the 2008/2009 NEA endorsed BKFK Inventive Thinking Toolkit guides kids though the invention process. The Toolkit ’s main goal is to develop and nurture the development of inventive thinking & problem solving skills. It provides educators, museum youth leaders, libraries and out of school programs, as well as families with inspiration and assistance to engage and excite youth.Click here for the 2008/2009 Inventive Thinking Teacher GuideThink Innovation!
BKFK partnered with Staples® to make bringing invention into the classroom easy. We challenge you and your students to think differently, think creatively and be inventive.
Design/ Creativity
Activities & lesson plans on Design and Creativity are for young people with a great eye! Your creative students would love to design and create services & products that identify with them. Why don't you inspire them to win big for their creative ideas?
Summer 2008: Mind Your Own Business Challenge
Entries from girls for business ideas and plans for a product or a service.
Teacher’s Guide: The Mind Your Own Business guide will let you help your students understand business concepts and how they can implement their ideas to develop a successful business plan. It comprises of various activities and tools to indulge your students in solving challenging business problems.
Activity 1: A fun way to introduce business jargons and terms to your students. Download the MYOB Word Search Activity.Winter 2008: Signature Style Challenge
Entries for apparel, accessories, footwear, hair/makeup, jewelry, handbags/totes, scarves/belts, and more
Teacher’s Guide: An introduction to the Signature Style Challenge and the available BKFK activities and tools to indulge your students
Activity 1: Illustrate through observation and reflection the role of clothing and dress in communication between people
Activity 2: Learn about the role of visual image in our current culture
Activity 3: Show students that by adding, subtracting or replacing, new items can be designed from old
Altruism
Activities & lesson plans on Altruism are for teens who want to make a difference in the world and straighten things out with their big ideas! And you can inspire your students to win big for their humane ideas
Summer 2008: Akitas To Zebras Animal Challenge
Entries for products, services or campaigns to help improve an animal or a pet's life.
Teacher's Guide: The Akitas To Zebras guide consists of several activities and brainsheets that will help you to provide concepts and understandings about pets and animals, help them craft the message they want to communicate or develop a product that will aid animals or people who live with animals.
Activity 1: Use this activity to help your students understand the perspective of an animal. Download the "It's a Dog's Life!" Activity.Winter 2008: Going Green Challenge
Entries for environment projects and activities for changing the world into a greener place
Teacher’s Guide: An introduction to the Going Green Challenge and the available BKFK activities and tools to indulge your students
Activity 1: Have students interview younger children, and show that creative thinking can be simple or complicated
Activity 2: Learn about the role of a responsible television channel to engage the viewers in positive environmental behavior
Activity 3: Encourage students to find ways to save energy
Art/ Self Expression
Activities & lesson plans on Art and self expression are for young people who want to speak out! You can inspire your students to win big for their expressive ideas.
Summer 2008: Advertise Your Cause Challenge
Entries for media campaigns that market a social cause.
Teacher's Guide: The Advertise Your Cause guide is set up to tap your students' interest in advertising and media campaigning for a social cause. It consists of several activities and brainsheets that will help you to provide concepts and understandings about the influence of media and how they can work on their advertising skills to voice their cause. You can use them to stretch your students’ minds and engage them in real-world projects and challenges.Winter 2008: Digital Arts Challenge
Entries for graphic novels, comic books, comic strips, cartoons, digital stories, photographic essays, poster art, graphic design, and more
Teacher’s Guide: An introduction to the Digital Arts Challenge and the available BKFK activities and tools to indulge your students
Activity 1: Read and analyze classic fables and apply it to modern day life
Activity 2: Learn about the process of creating graphic novels by using a simulation of a client request at a graphic arts publishing company
Activity 3: Have students realize that stories told in this genre usually have a hero or protagonist.
