MyMachine gives a chance to inventive children and young people to find and create technical solutions for original ideas. Its uniqueness lies in the cooperation of three levels of the education system – primary, secondary vocational and higher education.
Children and young people learn to work in teams, communicate, present, perceive and respect each other’s talents, think critically and take a creative approach to problem solving. At MyMachine, they place emphasis on the technical directions of education – science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics – STE(A)M. These are all competencies that are considered key to gaining a foothold in today’s global and ever-changing world.
MyMachine is an international programme. It was founded in Belgium and is currently implemented in 8 countries around the world, including South Africa, Slovenia, Portugal, France, the USA and Norway. In Slovakia, it has been covered by the Carpathian Foundation since 2016. Thanks to this programme, they also draw attention to the need to link non-formal education with formal education in Slovak schools.
The programme runs over one school year and has 3 phases:
- The idea: children in primary schools aged 6 to 12 invent and present their dream inventions in the form of drawings. MyMachine emphasises the importance and necessity of every single invention.
- Concept: in this phase, young people – students of technical universities and product design – are involved in the design of inventions. Children’s drawings are turned into functional concepts, the best designs are then processed into plans, diagrams and models.
- Prototype: in the last phase, technical drawings and developed solutions are handed over to students of secondary vocational schools with a technical focus. Students will create real prototypes of inventions in collaboration with the children who invented them and the college students who designed the design.
