The Invent America program addresses the need to provide K-8 students with opportunities to learn critical and creative thinking skills through the process of inventing. Students apply problem-solving skills as they turn their own creative ideas into inventions. It is an effort to integrate the curriculum, help students synthesize knowledge, and provide hands-on experience in the scientific process. The Invent America! program consists of handbooks for students, teachers and program administrators, which can be used to develop a school/classroom invention program; a catalog of recommended books to supplement the program; national and regional conferences to train educators in techniques to help students develop thinking skills; and inservice programs throughout the country to help schools begin Invent America! programs. Included in this document are lesson plans for: (1) developing an awareness of inventions; (2) showing how the inventive process works; (3) generating nouns to encourage creative thinking; (4) using verbs to describe new uses for common objects; (5) discovering that inventions are the result of a need; and (6) how to plan an invention project. Also included are ideas on the role of invention and the constitution, an inventor center, presenting situations to stimulate creative thinking, and communications. (MVL)