Invent the Future: A National Pilot Pairing Invention Learning with AI-Supported Learner Insight

For many middle school students, particularly those in under-resourced schools, meaningful opportunities to invent, build, test, and revise remain too rare. Educators also have limited ways to understand how different students experience those opportunities while they are taking place.

STEMCATALYST is proud to announce its first collaborative program grant, bringing together KID Museum and Vzable to launch Invent the Future, a national pilot designed to address both challenges.

The pilot combines two complementary capabilities.

KID Museum brings 15 years of experience with its proven Mind of a Maker invention-learning model, supported by educator training, coaching, field experiences, and a culminating Invention Expo. Students identify real problems, design solutions, build prototypes, test ideas, collaborate, revise, and present their work, developing the durable and human skills that will help them succeed in an AI integrated workforce.

Vzable brings its learner-experience insight system, providing earlier visibility into how different students experience the work and helping educators use what they learn. Two students can complete the same project and produce similar work while having very different experiences. Those differences can provide important clues about what helps a learner engage, where friction may be developing, and which future experiences may bring out that learner’s best.

Through brief, structured Insight Discovery reflections, Vzable hears directly from students and reveals patterns that participation and outcome measures may not show. The Insights Navigator helps educators explore those patterns, ask questions, and consider what may be worth preserving, examining more closely, or changing. AI-supported tools help organize and surface patterns, while the professional educator’s judgment remains central.

Together, KID Museum and Vzable will examine both what students accomplish and the experience behind those outcomes.

KID Museum’s invention-learning model: A 13-lesson experience in engineering design, prototyping, microcontrollers, and digital design, aligned with NGSS and Common Core Math standards, with educator training, coaching, field experiences, and a culminating Invention Expo.

Vzable’s learner-experience insight system: Insight Discovery and the Insights Navigator, used throughout the pilot to provide earlier visibility into individual experiences and broader patterns across classrooms and programs.

A national implementation and evidence model: Deployment across partner middle schools nationwide, with an emphasis on Title I and under-resourced schools, producing an evidence brief that draws on student outcomes and learner-experience patterns, together with potential pathways for scale.

The program’s goals include measurable gains in problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration, with every participant producing and publicly presenting an original invention. Teachers will gain greater confidence delivering hands-on, interdisciplinary instruction and a clearer understanding of how different students experience the learning.

The partners aim to create a replicable, evidence-backed model that other districts and funders can adopt with confidence.

“The same activity can be different for every student. Outcomes alone do not show what drew a learner in, what got in the way, or what may bring out their best next time. Vzable gives students a way to communicate that experience and helps educators see patterns they can use.”

Michael LoPresti, Co-Founder, Vzable

STEMCATALYST looks forward to sharing what this pilot reveals and what may become possible for our community of practice at greater scale.

STEMCATALYST is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, that unites employers, educators, and community partners to create sustainable pathways that prepare learners to thrive and shape the future. By leveraging the scale and expertise of STEMCONNECTOR, STEMCATALYST advances innovation, access, and long-term impact across the STEM talent ecosystem, with a focus on under-invested communities.

KID Museum is a nonprofit organization based in Bethesda, Maryland, established to address the growing disconnect between K-12 education and the changing world of work. Its Mind of a Maker model uses hands-on, project-based learning to help young people become persistent problem-solvers, collaborators, and changemakers.

Vzable helps learners discover the kinds of learning and doing that bring out their best, so possibilities come into view sooner. Its learner-experience insight system helps organizations understand individual experiences, recognize broader patterns, and use what they learn to shape what happens next. The system includes Insight Discovery, the Insights Navigator, and the Insights Community. Vzable is provided by Pathwise LLC.