Sparking creativity <http://SOWC2015.unicef.org/topics/sparking-creativity>
Young people need support and quality education to foster their potential as innovators.
Children and young people are natural innovators. They are also acutely aware and deeply concerned about the challenges facing their communities. Nurturing their creativity and critical thinking is key to helping them develop their potential to address these problems. Similarly, expanding access to quality education equips them with concrete knowledge and skills in disciplines like science and engineering, which are in demand in this technologically driven world. It’s especially important that the children whom society has kept at a disadvantage – because of gender, disability, ethnic minority status or poverty – have equal opportunities to learn and participate. Around the world, innovators are trying out unconventional approaches to education – like using simple toys to illustrate principles of science, or setting up innovation labs to give children a space in which to tinker with models and machines. Such initiatives impart critical knowledge and skills, while giving children opportunities to build their confidence as thinkers, makers and problem solvers. These experiences can change children’s lives – and children, in turn, have the potential to change the world. A boy who previously lived on the streets paints at the Umid Yeri (‘Place of Hope’) Children’s Shelter and Rehabilitation Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Stories Reimagine the future: Innovation for every child
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