The Books

Behind every Technocroft product is the same belief: that anyone can be creative, if they’re just shown how.

James Kean spent over 30 years teaching design and engineering — first at Plockton High School, then lecturing at Edinburgh College — and kept running into the same thing: bright, capable people convinced they “weren’t the creative type.” His books exist to prove otherwise.

Practical, bold, and refreshingly free of jargon, they hand you the tools that classrooms and textbooks tend to skip: how to actually generate ideas, how to bring them to life with a 3D printer, and how to run hands-on STEM activities that get young people genuinely excited about making. Every one has been shaped by real experience with real students. Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, a student, or an aspiring inventor, there’s a starting point here for you.

Have a browse below – and then go make something!

How to be an Inventor
An Inventor’s Playbook

Everyone has ideas. Most people were just never shown how to find them. This richly illustrated playbook teaches the 12 proven methods that real inventors use to turn a blank page into a working idea — the same kind of thinking behind the telephone, penicillin, and the humble Cat’s Eye. From spotting the right problem to protecting and selling your invention, it’s the practical, encouraging guide James always wished existed for his own pupils. Perfect for curious teenagers, design and engineering students, and anyone ready to start something of their own.

Scotland gave the world the telephone, television and penicillin. Who’s next?

 

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Get Started with 3D Printing
A handy guide to Rapid Prototyping for students, teachers and aspiring inventors

The perfect starting point for anyone curious about 3D printing — or rapid prototyping, to give it its proper name. Written by an engineering lecturer who uses these machines with students every week, it walks you clearly through the most common processes, then gets you straight into making with 12 starter projects, including a working model robot arm. Every project comes with editable CAD drawings and STL files, so you can print them as-is or modify them to launch your own ideas. There’s even a handy troubleshooting section for when things don’t go to plan. Ideal for students, teachers, independent inventors and entrepreneurs.

  • 12 ready-to-print starter projects — including a working robot arm
  • CAD drawings and STL files included
  • A plain-English guide to the most common 3D printing processes
  • A practical troubleshooting section
  • £25 · instant download from Draft2Digital

Action Stations! 10 Special STEM Activities
Manuals and workbooks for 10 challenging learning opportunities

STEM is booming in schools across the UK — this eBook manual helps you join the buzz with 10 fun, fully resourced events, from Hot Air Balloons and Waterwheels to Charity Collection Boxes and Emergency Shelters. Every activity has been tried and tested with school groups, and thousands of pupils have already had a go. You get everything you need to run them: setup guidance, teacher guidebooks, and pupil workbooks for each event. Run them as two-hour sessions, full-day events, or spread them across normal class time over several weeks. And because everything is fully editable, you can tailor each activity to your own group and setting.

 

  • 10 complete, classroom-tested STEM activities
  • Three sections: how to set up · teacher guidebooks · pupil workbooks
  • Flexible formats — 2-hour, full-day, or curricular inserts
  • Fully editable documents to suit your own group
  • £55 · instant download, no P&P