February 11 is National Inventors Day, an annual celebration highlighting the innovation and design of inventors past and present, and encouraging creative thinking for future inventors of all ages.
National Inventors Day and Time Timer
It’s always a special day for us at Time Timer, as we honor our founder and inventor Jan Rogers, as well as how far we’ve come! From Jan’s first prototype of the original Time Timer over 25 years ago, to our incredible family of Time Timer products available today, we’re so happy to be here supporting everyone to make every moment count.
National Inventors Day Activities for Kids
For parents and educators, you may like to bring National Inventors Day to the home or classroom. Here are a few ideas to get kids involved and perhaps invent something new themselves!
- Source library books about inventors through history and the power of imagination and creativity.
- Invite kids to write about or draw the inventions they think would be amazing to see in the world. It might be helpful to set a Time Timer to encourage creative thinking without getting too caught up in the details at first.
- Set up blocks, magnetic tiles, or other building materials found at home or outside in nature and encourage kids to use their imaginations to build something unique.
February is also Black History Month, so we’d like to highlight a few Black inventors and the genius behind design.
Celebrating Black Inventors
Black inventors have been responsible for some of the world’s foremost developments. Here are just five Black inventors, past and present, to learn more about.
2. Garrett Morgan (1877-1963) was an inventor, entrepreneur, and community leader, notable for developing the smoke hood, a predecessor to the gas mask, the three-position traffic signal, and hair product inventions.
3. James West (born 1931) is an inventor and acoustician who developed over 250 patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets.
4. Dr. Patricia Era Bath (1942-2019) was an ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic who developed an improved device for laser cataract surgery, one of five patents.
5. Mark Dean (born 1957) is an inventor and computer engineer who holds three of nine PC patents for being the co-creator of the IBM personal computer.
We hope this sparks interest in learning more about Black inventors and visionaries and their global contributions.
As Time Timer inventor Jan Rogers says, “follow that dream as far as possible.” Happy National Inventors Day!