More Bounce to the Ounce: Making Sustainable Materials Work-Technically and Economically

Ohio State University OARDC STEM Commercialization, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Forum

Students attending this forum participated in an extraordinary program that opened their eyes to new possibilities, inspired them to "think outside the box," and provided them with an opportunity to interact with professional STEM entrepreneurs and researchers.

At the Forum, students heard a number of speakers talk about how innovations will impact the future (see videos below). After listening and interacting with the speakers, students, assisted by college mentors, worked in teams to develop a new product, service or problem-solving innovation idea that they later pitched “Shark Tank style” to their peers.

Dr. Katrina Cornish

Health Beneficial Fruits Are Attached to STEMs

Dr. Joe Scheerens

Developing new chemical tools to control the deadliest animal in the world

Dr. Peter Piermarini

New Materials to Prevent Blindness

Dr. Katelyn Swindle Reilly

We encourage teachers to share the speakers’ short talks with their students to help them prepare for the future.  Individually and collectively these “TED-like” short talks will open your students’ eyes to the future, inspire them to “think outside the box” and challenge them to think about how to prepare themselves for their future.  Each Forum began with the video "Are You Ready for the Future" which set the stage for the talks that followed.  We encourage teachers to first show the "Are You Ready" video to their students to similarly set the stage for the talks that they will view.

Special thanks to the Burton D. Morgan Foundation for making this program possible.