The Innovation Archives

Innovators envision a better world, imagine things that don’t exist and believe it’s their place to turn ideas into reality. Read our CEO and founder’s blog post on being visionary.

• Camp Galileo Art Instructor Shows Sunnyvale Kids How To Fulfill Dreams
  -from San Jose Mercury News
• 9 Awesome Interviews with Creative Visionaries -from 99u
• Teaching Your Kids to Change the World -from The Happy Family Movement
• What Makes a Visionary? The Science Behind Steve Jobs – from Mother Nature Network
• How to Stimulate Curiosity – from KQED’s Mind/Shift
• Lessons in Creativity from Caine’s Arcade – from Greater Good
• Imagination Starters – from the Children’s Creativity Museum

Innovators freely share their creative thoughts, stretch themselves to try new things and embrace challenges. Read our CEO and founder’s blog post on being courageous.

• Why Fear Has No Place in Design –by Melissa Kline Lee with the Stanford d. School
• 7 Crippling Parenting Behaviors That Keep Children From Growing Into Leaders
  –from Forbes
• Making Friends With Failure –from Edutopia
• Famous Failures –from The Creativity Post
• 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do –Gever Tully’s TED talk
• Losing Is Good For You –from The New York Times
• Taking Creative Risks and Failing Forward – from the Children’s Creativity Museum
• In Praise of Failure – from Wired UK
• If You Have to Fail – And You Do – Fail Forward – from Forbes
• Designers Must Learn to Embrace Failure – from Tom & David Kelley
• Defining Creative Confidence – from the Children’s Creativity Museum

Innovators value different perspectives, build on others’ ideas and use their strengths to support other people. Read our CEO and founder’s blog post on being collaborative.

• Five Tips for Building Strong Collaborative Learning – from Edutopia
• The Positive Power of Play – from the Children’s Creativity Museum
• Developing a Participatory Approach to Fostering Creativity Through Education – from The Creativity Post
• Igniting Innovation in Education Through Collaboration – from Edutopia
• First the Children – from Huffington Post
• The Power of Playing Together – from Parent & Child
• 5 Reasons Why Collaboration Contributes to Innovation – from Fresh Consulting
• Resources and Downloads for Collaborative Learning – from Edutopia
• 4 Ways to Quickly Tackle New Skills as a Team – from 99u

Innovators know that innovation requires effort, use setbacks as opportunities to learn and persevere until they succeed.  Read our CEO and founder’s blog post on being determined.

• The Key to Success? Grit – Angela Duckworth’s TED Talk
• 10 Painful Rejection Letters to Famous People Proving You Should NEVER Give Up Your Dreams – from Distractify
• True Grit: The Best Measure of Success and How to Teach It – from Edutopia
• A Few Strokes of the Past in an Artist Who Lost Her Memory – from The New York Times
• The Power of Defeat: How to Raise a Kid With Grit – from Parent & Child
• 6 Ways for Parents to Teach Kids About Grit – from Huffington Post Parents
• The Gift of Failure: The Importance of Letting Children Make Mistakes – from Playful Learning
• Angela Duckworth’s 12-item Grit Assessment For Adults – from the University of Pennsylvania
• Angela Duckworth’s 8-item Grit Assessment For Kids – from the University of Pennsylvania
• Making Friends With Failure – from Edutopia
• How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character – by Paul Tough
• Designers Must Learn to Embrace Failure – from Time, by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
• Can Perseverance Be Taught? – by Angela Duckworth
• Does Teaching Kids to Get ‘Gritty’ Help Them Get Ahead? – from NPR
• 5 Steps to Foster Grit in the Classroom – from Edutopia

Innovators consider how their work impacts other people, think about what is and isn’t working in their design and seek feedback. Read our CEO and founder’s blog post on being reflective.

• Cultivating the Habits of Self Knowledge and Reflection – from Edutopia
• The Power of Rest and Reflection – Daniel Rubin’s TEDx Talk
• The Stop, Breathe & Think program – a meditation guide for kids from Tools for Peace
• The Art (and Science) of Giving Your Kids Feedback – from Psychology Today
• Giving Feedback: Seven Ways to Respond to Your Child’s Creative Work – from PBS Parents
• Creating a Culture of Student Reflection: Self-Assessment Yields Positive Results – from Edutopia
• The Power of Critique – from Fred Leichter, Stanford d.school Fellow
• Sit, Look and Listen – A Daily Practice in Getting Connected – from Tips for Playful Learning
• How Not to Talk To Your Kids – The Inverse Power of Praise – from New York Magazine

Galileo favorites to keep your families creating, making and innovating year round.

• Curiosity Hacked – A national non profit organization, founded in the Fall of 2012 in Oakland, CA, that focuses on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) education, skill building and community engagement with the aspiration to help children develop skills in the areas they are truly interested in, abilities that would allow them to dream big and create big.
• Destination Imagination – The Destination Imagination program encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts and service learning. Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process.Teams may showcase their solutions at a tournament.
• DIY.org – A way for kids to get skills, meet others who share the same passions, and generally be awesome. Every member has their own porfolio where they share what they make and do, and earn embroidered skill patches for completing sets of challenges.
• First Lego League – An exciting and fun global robotics program that ignites an enthusiasm for discovery, science and technology in kids ages 9 to 14.
• Maker Faire – The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.
• Odyssey of the Mind – An international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. Thousands of teams throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
• The Tech Challenge – A signature program of The Tech Interactive in San Jose, CA, the Tech Challenge is an annual team design challenge for students in grades 5-12 that introduces and reinforces the science and engineering design process with a hands-on project geared to solving a real-world problem.
• Young Makers – The Maker Education Initiative’s Young Makers program brings together a community of young people, ages 8-18, of varying backgrounds, interests, and skill levels, with mentors and a space to make. In small clubs, participants work together throughout the season to design and make a youth-chosen, open-ended project, culminating in an opportunity to share and exhibit at a showcase event.
• Instructables – A place that lets you explore, document, and share your creations. From cooking to 3D printing, to making just about anything fly, Instructables houses countless hours of tinkering, soldering, stitching, frying, and fun, making just about anything.
• KidsThinkDesign – A non-profit design resource dedicated to the education and inspiration of future designers.