When Amir Asor was laid up for seven months with an injury five years ago, he didn't just lie in bed. He came up with the idea for Young Engineers, a startup that in 2011 won him the Youth Business International Entrepreneur of the Year award from Britain's Youth Business International non-profit organization.

As Asor describes here, Young Engineers school-based clubs give children an opportunity to use LEGO and K'NEX construction toys to grasp arithmetic principles related to machinery and software engineering.

"Children participating in the Young Engineers programs achieved higher grades within the scientific subjects that are taught in schools," says Asor. "Elementary school students obtained the knowledge to succeed when it comes to tackling the more complex scientific curriculum which taught in higher educational settings."

Young Engineers has branched out, with thousands of children around the world using the program in Israel, Switzerland, Singapore, Nigeria and China.