How Rich Lehrer Inspires Students Through Authentic Problem Solving

As educators look to prepare their students to succeed in an evolving world, many are embracing new and engaging pedagogies to teach the skills and attributes children need to thrive, no matter where their paths might lead.

Throughout his 35-year teaching career, Rich Lehrer has developed ways to do just that. Lehrer serves as the director of academic innovation and design at the Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain in Las Vegas, and he co-leads the Columbia University Klingenstein Summer Institute Experiential Learning course for early career teachers.

“I’ve had these series of really lucky things that opened my eyes to the idea that education can be about so much more than just content transmission,” Lehrer said in an interview with the National Inventors Hall of Fame^®. “I think if we're looking for ways to increase retention, it has to be fulfilling on a really profound level for teachers to do this work.”

Making It Real

When Lehrer began his career teaching mathematics and science at the E.J. Dunn Junior Secondary School in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, he first approached instruction in a traditional way, with an emphasis on lecturing and memorization.

“I was teaching science the way I had been taught – I didn’t like it when I was a kid, but I was still teaching it,” Lehrer said.

This all changed when he was made aware of a program from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which gave students the chance to raise salmon eggs and work with fisheries to release them. This authentic approach to teaching biology gave Lehrer a new appreciation for helping students make real-world connections with what they learn in class.

“That was the first time a little light went on. If you can make it real, these kids are going to love this class,” Lehrer said. “My career has been sort of defined by those moments of trying to find authentic applications for what we’re trying to teach them.”

Meaningful Problem Solving

Lehrer’s passion for developing more authentic teaching practices led him to apply for and earn a fellowship in 2011, so he could travel to Rwanda to study how the country was using technology and innovation to recover from its genocide in 1996.

At the time, he was teaching at the Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts, and had connected with the D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a research laboratory that works with people worldwide to develop collaborative solutions to poverty-related challenges.

Lehrer inquired with the D-Lab about any opportunities for children to solve real engineering problems and he learned that while nothing like that existed at MIT, it had been looking to develop a program to address these needs.

This connection blossomed into a multiyear collaboration in which Lehrer’s students teamed up with children in Brazil, Rwanda and Uganda to build small, efficient cook stoves.

During this time, Lehrer connected with an educator from Brazil who introduced him to the concept of 3D printing. Lehrer was shown a video of the first 3D printable assistive device developed for a carpenter from South Africa who had lost two fingers in a carpentry accident. This project would later blossom into e-NABLE, an open-source community of people around the world who help develop 3D printable designs for hands and arms, intended to help those in need. This inspired Lehrer to work with his seventh-grade science students to construct a 3D-printed hand for his son Max.

“I realized this technology allows kids to make really sophisticated solutions to problems,” Lehrer said. “For the students involved, the experience was very meaningful.”

The following year, Lehrer expanded this program and partnered with a local independent living facility in Massachusetts to help solve seniors’ problems through digital fabrication and 3D printing.

As the program continued to grow, so did its impact. In response, Lehrer formalized the process by which his students could develop solutions. He called it the Problem Bank.

Solutions From the Problem Bank

When Lehrer began working at the Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain in 2021, he brought the Problem Bank with him. He expanded the program into an elective class for seventh- and eighth-grade students called “Tech for Good.”

“The course is all about helping students use technology to affect positive change in their worlds,” Lehrer said. “We teach them our design process and some basics of design and fabrication, and they just leap into it.”

Using customized forms that live on the Dawson Problem Bank website, members of the Dawson community, and even those outside it, can submit a problem for students to solve.

From creating replacement pieces for board games like “Monopoly,” “Trouble” and chess to developing a bass bow prosthetic for a Dawson orchestra student who was unable to hold a conventional bow, over the years, Dawson students’ range of solutions has been impressive.

Lehrer in large part attributes his students’ engagement in his Tech for Good class to both the types of problems they solve and the impact on those who benefit from their hard work.

“We work so hard to make sure the problems kids are throwing their time at are actually worthwhile,” Lehrer said. “You’re not just doing this because it’s a grade in a class or it’s an assignment; you’re doing this because there’s a person at the end waiting for the thing you design – that authentic piece really is what kicks it up a notch.”

Promoting Invention Education

Because of the Dawson Problem Bank’s success, Lehrer often speaks with other educators interested in introducing a similar type of invention education in their districts.

He often gives two pieces of advice regarding logistics and ensuring a strong academic foundation.

“The first piece is to find a time and a place to do it – an afterschool club, Saturday morning – just find a time to do it,” he said. “The second is to help show decision-makers that this is not a course where all kids do is make happy, wonderful things – we do really rigorous documentation.”

For this documentation component, not only do Lehrer’s students receive a grade for their performance in the Tech for Good class, but their completed projects also are featured on the Dawson Problem Bank website.

However, for Lehrer, the outcomes are ultimately secondary to the skills and confidence his students gain, which will benefit them throughout their lives.

“I say to my students all the time, it’s not about what you’re making. It’s about the process – the change-making, the belief that you can do it and seeing how you can approach a problem with an air of positivity.”

Bring Accessible Invention Education to Your District

For over 30 years, the National Inventors Hall of Fame has partnered with thousands of school districts in all 50 states to implement engaging invention education programs that inspire students and teachers while aligning with national and state education standards.

To learn more, visit our website!