Inside the Inventionland Curriculum with Teacher Ben English

Textbooks are great, but they only go so far. At Grove City Middle School, technology and engineering teacher Ben English wanted to give his students something more. He wanted them to build real things and solve real problems.

That is where Inventionland Education comes in.

English uses the Inventionland Innovation Science with his students year-round. And for him, the connection is simple, and the outcome is important, too! It’s not theory. It’s real-world inventing. Each team is solving a problem by creating a new product and participating in the invention contest.

“Without the Inventionland curriculum, we don’t have the contest,” English explained. “And the contest is so important to the students.”

Students Invent with Creativity

When students know they are competing, everything changes. As English noted, “When we take and make it a little bit of a competition, all of a sudden that drives more inspiration; it drives more engagement.”

The journey starts with the proven nine-step method. This helps students organize their thoughts and figure out the process. But the hardest part? Just finding a problem to solve.

English tells his kids that problems are all around them. They just have to figure out what those problems are.

Once they find a problem, students get to work on things they actually care about. Some kids love the building process. Others prefer packaging, marketing, or prototyping.

Because they focus on their own hobbies, such as football, running, or cooking, they take full ownership of their projects.

“When they’re no longer worried about grades, and now they’re doing it for themselves, and they’re doing something that they really, really enjoy, their engagement level goes up,” English said.

Why Student Competitions Drive Real Engagement

The best part? This does not just stop in the classroom. Students who win their local invention contests take their product straight to the National Invention Contest at Inventionland in Pittsburgh, PA. From there, amazing things happen.

“During those contests, it’s opened up doors for a lot of students to get their products actually out on [the] market,” English shared. “So it’s been a really, really cool opportunity for a lot of our students to see their products on shelves, to see their products on Amazon.”

You can search it, buy it, and watch middle school ideas come to life.

Real-world inventing gives students a chance to put what they know into practice. Textbooks cannot teach that kind of hands-on experience.

Watch ‘Tomorrow’s Innovators Can’t Wait’ on Tomorrow’s World Today!

Tune in on Saturday, November 7th at 10am/ET (7am Pacific) on the Science Channel and Sunday, November 8th at 8:30am on the Discovery Channel.

Plus, stream the episode on our YouTube Channel starting on November 9th, 2026