inventHERS Lab

This is where inventor stories turn into action. Explore hands-on challenges inspired by women inventors that encourage tinkering, testing, and bold ideas - no special space or age required. Odd ideas encouraged.

Lesson Featured on PBS!

cover of lesson featuring josephine cohran and the dishwasher

Dirty Dishes to Big Ideas

Inspired by Josephine Cochrane, this lesson challenges learners to spot everyday frustrations and turn them into inventions. Students explore how one woman’s annoyance with broken dishes led to a world-changing appliance—and then apply that same inventor mindset to problems they care about.

Using Data to Explore: Who Gets to Invent?

This middle school math lesson uses real inventorship data featured by PBS NewsHour to help students analyze percentages, ratios, and visual models while exploring who gets represented in innovation. It offers a standards-aligned, engaging way to connect math skills to current events, data literacy, and real-world systems.

Two Patents & an Idea (Women Inventors Edition)

Students explore two real patents created by women inventors, then use them as inspiration to develop an original invention of their own. This activity highlights how existing ideas spark new ones—and how women have been innovating all along.

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Clearing the Skies

Inspired by NASA engineer and inventor Ellen Ochoa, this challenge tackles the growing problem of space junk. Learners design creative solutions to protect satellites, astronauts, and future space exploration—thinking like inventors who solve problems beyond Earth.

Women Inventor Posters & Sticker Set

A free, ready-to-use poster & sticker set featuring Rosalind Franklin, Katherine Burr Blodgett, Evelyn Berezin, and Alice Ball. Perfect for classrooms, bedrooms, hallways, presentations, and quick discussion starters that celebrate women inventors and spark curiosity.

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