Oskar is an eight year old boy with a mission: to build a machine to find and dig up treasures in his garden. Because, so he wonders, what if an ancient Roman treasure is hidden under the grass? Just think about it, what if he and his family moved away and they hadn’t searched for the treasure? What if another family moved in who immediately would find the treasure? Wouldn’t that be awful?
So Oskar invented a “Look-For-Treasures-And-Dig-Them-Up-Machine”. He thought about what the machine should be able to do, and made a beautiful drawing showing how it would look like. He even wrote a user manual. And now he wants his machine to be build as well. But how? His father is all thumbs (at least that’s what his mother always says…). So what can he do?

Higher Education Students, Technical/Vocational Secondary Students and Primary School Children learn a lot through MyMachine

Tom Vander Ark is CEO Getting Smart, author, Forbes contributer, Linkedin Top Voice in Education, first Executive Director Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, previously served as President of the X PRIZE Foundation and is leading voice in education in the USA.

Here’s Tom Vander Ark’s keynote on our Future of Education event -organised in a partnership with our esteemed industry partner Agoria– where he explains the modern context for education and how MyMachine is stepping in:

dr. Christina Smiraglia is a Senior Research Manager at Harvard’s Project Zero, where she has worked on multiple projects, including Arts Festival Impacts, Learning Innovations Laboratory, Art Works at Work, and Higher Education in the 21st Century. Her research interests are focused on informal learning environments and object-based approaches, and she teaches graduate courses on informal learning research and pedagogy.

Here’s Christina Smiraglia’s keynote on our An Evening With MyMachine event:

Sir Ken Robinson is education and creativity expert, one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s Principal Voices, acclaimed by Fast Company magazine as one of “the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation”, holds the most viewed TED-Talk worldwide and author of many New York Times bestsellers.

Here is his introduction to our book:

Around the world, new education models arise. MyMachine is one such leading example where it allows children to drive their own learning. MyMachine shines in its ability to unite and encourage collaboration among all levels in the educational system.
Leading thinkers, along with experts in creativity and education express in this book just how those participating in the MyMachine methodology can change the education system for the better.

Book written by Piet Grymonprez, Filip Meuris and Jan Despiegelaere with these amazing guest authors like

Amy Kamarainen — Harvard University
Angela Haydel Debarger — William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
Christina Smiraglia — Harvard University
Edward P. Clapp — Harvard University
Hank Nourse — The New York Academy of Sciences
Sir Ken Robinson — New York Times Bestselling Author.

Forbes’ article on MyMachine

To make an impact on communities around the world by enabling young people to drive their own futures, to become the self-motivated, problem solving, creative, self-employed or team workers that companies, organisations and the world at large are looking for.

Inventing a dream machine. Translating an idea into a concept. Translating a concept into a working prototype. All of these steps challenge the students to be very creative to make it all work.

All students learn though MyMachine what it means to go for it. To create something that nobody else has done before. They learn not be afraid of doing something new to the world, no matter how strange the idea might sound in the beginning. They learn that by collaborating in groups, respecting each other talents, you can take on any idea and make it work.

The world at large needs young people to become part of a higher level of innovation which may contribute to significant reductions in environmental impacts. For that, sustainable innovation – a process where sustainability considerations are integrated in the designs of products, services, technologies, business and organisation models- is key.
In MyMachine we empower students to dream and bring their new ideas to life. While some of the dream machine ideas might sound futile for now, by taking the young people seriously, we empower them with the knowledge that any idea matters. They will use this power of possibility throughout their lives and it will enable them to engage in the making of future sustainable innovations.

Today’s jobs increasingly require knowledge in STE(A)M areas, along with competence in what are commonly referred to as 21st-century, non-cognitive, or social-emotional skills—capacities such as creativity, communication, collaboration, and persistence.

Students participating in MyMachine identify their passion(s) and talent(s). Some discover they are good in communicating or in creativity or in technology, others in project management or in leadership.

Step 1-2-3 in our methodology are not divided steps. On the contrary. The whole process is based upon co-creation, collaboration of all students of all levels, working together as peers.

Empathy is our ability to see the world through other people’s eyes, to see what they see, feel what they feel, and experience things as they do. MyMachine takes the ideas from children serious. We listen to them. And even more, we work on their ideas. A life changing experience for them. The result from a 2019 LinkedIN survey asking about the most important leadership skill, defined empathy as the most important skill.

Empowerment of all students is key to us! Therefore MyMachine does not incorporate a substantive framework and it is not a competition. All students involved are winners. All ideas are winners.

Students of all ages learn-by-doing all the core steps of design thinking, necessary to translate the invention of a new product into a design concept and a working prototype.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics. MyMachine embraces technical and technological talents, creative ideas and engineering solutions. Students gain insight on what STE(A)M means in real life. They learn how these skills might trigger their future professions.

Joy and wonder promote learning. They increase dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen. Optimal brain activation occurs when people are in positive emotional states or when the material holds personal meaning, connects to their interests, is presented with elements of novelty, or evokes wonder.

Considering our focus on invention, design, and making, maker-centered learning emphasizes looking closely, exploring complexity, and finding opportunity as three core maker capacities.

Much as Harvard identifies agency as a keystone in empowering maker-centered learning, MyMachine supports the development of students’ agency both as makers and as learners, by instilling participants with an I can do that attitude both toward building machines with social value and toward navigating the social system that supports learning in their community.

By placing students in a network of interacting mentors, makers, and doers the participants have opportunities to form relationships across domains of expertise and across age levels that could positively impact the net social capital of the community.

They learn that they can contribute to society, rather than just be a consumer of society.

MyMachine supports sustained inquiry around a challenge and carefully attends to promoting agency and reflection throughout learning.

By being explicit about how MyMachine is aligned with and even extends traditional notions of Project Based Learning, we transform learning experiences in the participating schools.

MyMachine is focusing on Agency and Ownership through sustained inquiry and brings meaningful integration of disciplinary content and practices.

MyMachine intends that students not only enjoy the experience of learning, but also develop essential disciplinary ideas and practices. This becomes possible with intentionally designed opportunities for making progress toward these goals.

We bring MyMachine to the global community by launching official MyMachine Chapters. Once a Chapter is created, the MyMachine model creates a unique open collaboration between all educational levels. The bringing to life of the dream machines is a completely open process that anyone can follow and contribute to.