Club Invention

Club Invention Encourages Imagination and Innovation

Six years ago, Mrs. Nicole Jedwabny was approached to be the director of “Camp Invention”, a weeklong camp during the summer hosted by Xavier Elementary School. This fall, she decided to incorporate Club Invention, an afterschool program created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF), the same creators of Camp Invention. Mrs. Jedwabny was surprised at the number of students who signed up, there were so many that they had to open another session creating a total of 50 students! The course is open to all students in the Fox Valley area but the majority are from Xavier’s two elementary campuses. The courses were led by St. Francis Xavier’s very own, Mrs. Nicole Jedwabny and Mrs. Beth Mares, on Mondays after school for five weeks. In each Club Invention session, children can let their imagination run wild while exploring connections between science, technology, engineering and innovation!

In these two groups, students have been participating in a program called “Bolder Builders”, packed with creative problem solving, innovation, and STEM. Children have been asked to join an engineer, architect and builder to restore a town devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes! They take on the challenge to build stronger bridges and better buildings using inspiration from nature, and the inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame!

St. Francis Xavier is excited to share the successes of Club Invention, packed with so many fun activities that the children don’t even realize they are learning standard-aligned curriculum! Be on the lookout for more Club Invention sessions to come before the end of the year, as well as next spring so that you can get your child(ren) signed up to join in on the fun!