I had the honor of being the lead teacher for the 2017 DIY Girls InvenTeam at San Fernando High School, my alma mater. The girls invented a solar powered tent for homeless individuals in Los Angeles, providing them with a phone charging port, UVC LEDs for sanitation, and LED lights. This was one of the best experiences of my educational career! 

I was thrilled when Ms. Mardirosian asked me to help mentor the next group of girls who will be applying to the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam. I flew out to California last week to meet with the girls and help them brainstorm potential problems and potential solutions to the problem. 

Day 1

I had the girls identify 10 problems before meeting with me. The girls shared out these problems and discussed why they were important to the girls. The three big ideas that came of this discussion included: 

1. Water quality in their community. Many of the girls participated in a Pacoima Beautiful summer camp all about environmental awareness and water quality in our community. After learning about a hot spot for water contamination in our community due to run off from auto repair shops, they were really excited to work on this problem.
2. Caring for the elderly. The girls live in multi-generational households and many have had experience caring for grandparents. The girls wanted an assistive device that allows family members to be alerted in case of any emergency, or allow family members to monitor the health of a loved one from afar or in case of a natural disaster.
3. Security for young girls. For years, the San Fernando Valley has had a problem with sex trafficking. This issue has become so prominent that 4 years ago, Councilwoman Nury Martinez launched the Los Angeles Police Department's Operations-Valley Bureau Human Trafficking Task Force. Coupled with the #MeToo Movement and their personal experiences with assault and harassment, the girls were really passionate about addressing this issue.

Next, I had the girls identify themselves as either Tinkerers, Talkers, Doodlers, or Organizers. I grabbed this idea from the JV InvenTeams curriculum in order to have the girls think about their own interests and skills and organize themselves into diverse teams. 

In their new teams, the girls took a good amount of time understanding the problem. After talking with Tony and learning that some other InvenTeams really struggle throughout the year because they don’t fully understand the problem they are solving, I wanted to make sure the girls understand who is affected by the problem, what they are doing to work around/solve the problem now, and what other solutions are on the market now. Each group took on one of the problems they identified earlier and presented it to the rest of the class. 

After learning about the people affected by the problem, we put the main problem areas on large sheets of paper around the room. I encouraged the girls to walk around and write or sketch potential solutions for the problem. The girls were encouraged to walk around the room multiple times, building on each other's ideas. 

The girls then broke out into their groups again and tried to come up with 2-3 ideas that would solve their identified problem, building off of ideas that the group as a whole came up with. The girls then presented these ideas to the group and got some great feedback. 

Day 2

The second day with the girls was exciting because the girls were tasked with building 2-3 prototypes based on the ideas that they came up with the previous day. I pulled in some aspects of Grab Bag Inventing, an activity that allows participants to try playful inventing and helps them recognize their own creative abilities. Participants work together in small groups to design inventions using common materials. I gave the girls pipe cleaners, foam sheets, cardboard, cotton balls, and common materials found in any classroom. 

The purpose of this activity was to get the girls to understand that one of the most important aspects of being an inventor is being imaginative and creative. Another benefit of this activity was to get the girls building as soon as possible! One of the big lessons learned from my InvenTeam two years ago was that the sooner the students start building, the sooner they get invested in the project and have more time to iterate on the design. 

Girls then presented their prototypes and ideas to the class. After each group presented, they gave each other feedback, including what they liked about the idea, skepticisms, and potential drawbacks. Lastly, the girls had one final discussion about which problem and solution really spoke to them and would keep them engaged for an entire year. 

The girls had a really meaningful conversation about the problems and the people that they could potentially help. The girls selected Female Security as the problem they would be working on this year, for a variety of reasons. The first was that this was an issue that affected either them personally or a woman that they know; next was that many of the girls rescued from the sex trafficking task force are as young or younger than they are; and most importantly, they have an expertise with this topic that can only come from their lived experience. 

When we left the second day, the girls were tasked with starting the research that goes into the InvenTeam application. They will be working with Ms. Violet Mardirosian and some of the DIY Girls staff to complete this project. The team also reached out to the offices of Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, a real spokesperson for defending the right and security of sex trafficking survivors, and a San Fernando High School alumna. Hopefully, the girls will get to meet with the Councilwoman herself to learn about this issue further and how to keep young girls safe in our community.

I am really excited to continue mentoring this group of girls throughout the year and can’t wait to see what the final invention will be!