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Inventive Problems: You know the kind.  They are the tough problems in life filled with tradeoffs and conflicts and where compromise doesn’t work. Inventive Problems are everywhere: our homes, our schools, our communities, our country, and the world.  Inventive Problems are in our technology and our relationships.  How do we prepare our young people to meet the challenge of these difficult problems? We harness the genius of thousands of creative people in the same way we have always harnessed the genius of exceptional people.  We study their work and extract the principles used to create it.

What is Invention Road™? Everyone's familiar with brainstorming.  We've changed the rules and improved the process to increase the number of great ideas and make it more enjoyable for the participants. Few people are familiar with the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving known by its acronym TRIZ.  TRIZ is the world's most powerful inventive methodology.  During sixty years of research and development, the creators of TRIZ abstracted inventive principles from millions of patents and scores of technologies.  TRIZ is a very complex method with many special tools.  We built Invention Road™ on a foundation of TRIZ and systematic brainstorming. Invention Road™ is divided into five sections: Situation, Ideal Vision, Resource, Concept, and Solution. It provides assistance at each stop along the road. Everyone knows how a good table of contents and an index help you locate information in a book.  Our index guides you to twenty-five inventive principles and more than fifty illustrations while you brainstorm. To purchase Invention Road™ click here.

 What benefits does Invention Road™ provide to teachers?

• A proven inventive procedure that can be taught, tested, and applied
• A body of knowledge extracted from millions of patents and numerous technical methodologies in the form of inventive principles that can be taught and tested
• A set of lesson outlines for presenting and using Invention Road in the classroom
• A set of test questions for assessing student learning
• Connections to the National Standards for Technological Literacy
• Connections to the National Science Education Standards

What benefits does Invention Road™ provide to students?

• A step by step procedure that guides students along the pathway to inventions
• Knowledge of proven inventive principles for generating ideas
• Increased powers of observation
• A new way to think about the technological world around them
• Increased skill with analogical thinking
• A better understanding of systems
• A coach for future problems
• A way to maintain creativity

The Invention Road™ process

Most young students will be familiar with the step-by-step process of the scientific method.  Invention Road™ and the TRIZ Inventive Principles are linked to a five-step process that guides the problem solver from a clear definition of the problem to an inventive solution.

We've combined the familiar with the unusual to provide a repeatable and reliable method that is easy to learn and apply to the tough problems that require a champion problem solver.  All champions have one thing in common--a COACH.

Invention Road™ acts as an on-line coach bringing teachers and students the principles used by thousands of inventors.

Invention Road™ provides teachers with a clear process and a body of knowledge in the form of inventive principles that can easily be taught, tested, and applied.  Request a test drive on Invention Road here.

To purchase Invention Road™ click here.