Ayah Bdeir
Popular Science|November - December 2016

On prepping students for the jobs of the future

Sophie Bushwick
Ayah Bdeir

AYAH BDEIR CREATED LITTLEBITS—ELECTRONIC BUILDING BLOCKS THAT snap together to form high-tech DIY projects—with engineering and design pros in mind. But when she brought her invention to Maker Faire in 2009, it grabbed the attention of children, and their parents and teachers. Today, the company has sold millions of littleBits, and has an education team that writes littleBits-based curricula now used in more than 3,500 schools worldwide. “Many kids are tech-savvy when it comes to using devices,” Bdeir says, “but they don’t necessarily think of themselves as creators.”She predicts that acquiring this “creative confidence” is key to competing in the job market of the future, and to tackling technology jobs that don’t yet exist.

This story is from the November - December 2016 edition of Popular Science.

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This story is from the November - December 2016 edition of Popular Science.

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