Survey: teens have tech confidence
American teens are confident they can invent solutions to some of the world's pressing challenges, including protecting and restoring the natural environment, but more than half feel unprepared for careers in technology and engineering.
Those are key findings from this year's Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which seeks to gauge Americans' attitudes toward invention and innovation.
The index is compiled by the Lemelson-MIT Program, which was founded in 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by prolific inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy; the program is funded by the Lemelson Foundation, a philanthropy that celebrates and supports inventors and entrepreneurs in order to strengthen social and economic life in the U.S. and developing countries.
In this year's Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, nearly three out of four American teens believe technological inventions or innovations can solve some of our pressing environmental issues within the next decade, including global warming, water pollution and fossil fuel depletion.
Nearly two-thirds of teens are confident they could invent some of these solutions, and this contrasts with only 38 percent of adults who believe they could invent something to help protect and restore the natural environment, the index found.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
