My daughter’s school held its annual “Invention Convention” yesterday. This event, which asks students to identify a need and invent something to fill it, is a HUGE deal for the kids – most of them start planning their inventions months in advance – and also generates a lot of good publicity for the school (our school being the only elementary school around that does this sort of thing). Jo’s invention (“The Magna-board”: a magnetized skateboard that makes it easier to do jumps and such) didn’t win this year, but she got to do a couple of TV interviews (a fairly extensive live one on KNTV San Jose and a shorter one, with a demo of her invention, on KSBW Monterey). Sadly, we don’t get KNTV (a friend was going to try to record it for me), but we did get to watch the one on KSBW last night.
Anyway, after watching her on the news last night, we went to Capitola Mall to pick up my extended LOTR DVD set and, as we were walking across the food court, we heard someone yell “Hey! It’s that girl from TV!” A gal who looked to be in her late teens or very early 20s came up to Jo and said “you’re the girl who was on TV this morning…the one with the magnetized skateboard, right?” Jo looked a bit dumbfounded, and just nodded. The other gal flashed her a big thumbs up and said “Cool! Keep on skating!” Jo was just over the moon…it’s one thing to be on the news and have your parents and a few friends notice…it’s a whole different thing to have a total stranger recognize you! She’s still on Cloud 9 this morning!
I really get a kick out of the Invention Convention every year. Some of the things these kids (grades K-6) come up with are amazing! My favorites from this year (other than Jo’s, of course) were a diaper alarm that lets you know when baby’s diaper is wet (invented by a third grader with a new baby sister); a backpack with a built-in voice recorder to make remembering homework assignments easier (invented by Jo’s best friend;) a cat door that welcomes your kitty in with sweet words, but blocks out stray cats, racoons, etc. and scares them away with loud noises; and an automatic fish tank cleaner.
Good for your daughter. So many kids are either too buried in TV or other non-thinking projects to even be mildly interested in things like this. I am afraid my son might be one of them.
Everyone wants to be recognized for something, even the most shy people that claim they do not want to be.
Sorry you could not make it to the SF gathering too. We missed you.
I’m really sorry I couldn’t make it to the gathering too. I had planned on it, but family intervened Next time, for sure!
The school really goes to great lengths to make this event attractive to students. All participants this year got ribbons, T-shirts, a $5 gift certificate to the Scholastic Book Fair (which is going on at school right now), an invitation to exhibit their inventions at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and a chance to win a drawing for a year’s family membership at The Tech (a really fun place, and a big sponsor of the Invention Convention every year). Classes that had 100% participation get a bowling party. The winners in each of the 20 categories get certificates and really cool prizes donated by area toy stores, science stores and bookshops. Usually it only takes one year of nonparticipation for a kid to get bitten by the bug, and one year of participation for them to be totally hooked on the fun of inventing. It’s a lot of work for the parents and teachers that take it on every year, but well worth the effort.
That really sounds wonderful. When I was a kid, my mom was involved with everything in the school…she made things happen. I intend to be as involved when my kids go to school, so hopefully we can get motivational stuff like that going.
Involved parents are the key to a brilliant educational environment for our children, to my way of thinking. I think that’s what makes our school such a great place – somehow the parents just find the time to be involved (even though most of them work, and some of them have to hold multiple jobs just to get by in overpriced Santa Cruz). While the school requires 25 volunteer hours from each family, most families put in a lot more than that. The educational philosophy is great, but it’s the families that make it work.
I can tell already you’re going to be a great mom, Jessie
Next time, for sure!