Introducing our Newest ICW Affiliate: Utah!

With the 2023 competition season quickly approaching, we are thrilled to announce our newest affiliate program: the Utah Invention Convention, a program of the Utah State University Extension program. Our friends Deb Ivie, Extension Youth Programs STEM Specialist, and Denise Taylor, Extension Program Coordinator, are excited to join the ICW family and bring invention education to their students in Utah.

Like many around the world, Ivie and Taylor recognize that there is a gap in the availability of STEM learning for underserved populations. They have actively been seeking more ways to expose youth to engineering and computational concepts outside of traditional STEM programming such as robotics, electronics, and hard sciences.

“Research shows that many underserved youth populations are more interested in STEM if it is creative in nature and/or helps meet a community need or solve a social problem,” said Ivie and Taylor. “We feel that ICW is a strong avenue that will help us involve more youth through this approach. ICW will also strengthen our efforts in connecting our STEM programming to entrepreneurship, providing a stronger entrepreneurship pathway for our youth in Utah.”

In its first year, the Utah Invention Convention is implementing the program in schools within the Salt Lake City School District with a competition planned for the spring. Future plans involve afterschool programming in conjunction with the Utah Afterschool Network, as well working with 4-H groups.

We are excited to see the impact that invention education will have on the students in Utah. Join us in welcoming them to the ICW family!

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