West Madison gifted students offer solutions at ‘Invention Convention’
MADISON — Gifted fourth- and fifth-graders at West Madison Elementary School got their creative juices flowing this semester to come up with solutions to problems they have noticed in their lives or the lives of others.
The students’ ideas impressed spectators young and old at a special “Invention Convention” held in the school’s library March 5. Other students and teachers had the opportunity to walk around and observe the inventions while each student inventor took a few seconds to explain their invention and demonstrate how it works.
Nathan Chin had one of the most technological inventions out of the group. His station included a laptop that computed information it picked up from a Lego box that housed the sensor he built.
“This is a temperature and humidity sensor, so it will record the temperature and humidity around you, so if I blow on (the sensor), then the humidity should go up because my breath is humid,” he explained. After breathing on the sensor a couple times, his laptop picked up on an increase in humidity from 25-52 percent. “You can change it from Fahrenheit to Celsius, and you can also (record) the time.”
Though the students’ inventions varied widely in size, shape, purpose and materials, each student was able to let their ideas shine.
According to WMES Gifted Specialist Wendy Tibbs, students first had to put on their thinking caps last semester with an assignment to build an arcade game out of cardboard. They also began brainstorming ideas for solutions to problems they have noticed.
“We spent last semester looking for things that bugged us and finding problems, and then they thought about it and decided on which thing they wanted to target to fix, and that’s what they’re doing here,” she said. “But mostly, it’s about the design process and the engineering process and figuring out that if something doesn’t work, you go back and try something else.”
The students’ inventions addressed a wide variety of problems—from lunchtime boredom and slippery purse straps to infant asphyxiation and archers’ vulnerable arms.
Throughout the assignment, the students tracked their progress in their invention journals, which they made out of gift bags. This was a new aspect to the project, which Tibbs said she does with students about every three or four years.
After coming up with an idea, students submitted a patent to explain the need and make sure there were no duplicate inventions. After that, Tibbs said the students learned about naming their invention and how to advertise or come up with a marketing strategy for it.
Nathan said he came up with the idea to build a temperature and humidity sensor to help both his mother and himself. “My mom needs something to record the temperature and humidity of her flowers, and I also need that same thing for my piano, so I came up with this idea, and my dad got me a kit … so I built it,” he explained.
Kalah Christopher said she struggled to come up with an idea for an invention. A video on YouTube led her to create “Kalah’s Kuddle Kare.”
“I got home one day … and I was like, ‘I’ve got to come up with an idea because we’re going to be starting our project soon,’” she recalled. “I was just watching a video, and then on YouTube … I was just watching Inside Edition, and it said, like, three kids died of asphyxiation, so then I was like, ‘that’s a good idea. I can do this.’”
Kalah’s invention incorporates an inflatable device inside a bib that inflates when it senses that the child’s head is leaning on it. When the bib inflates, it raises the baby’s head enough to open up their windpipe and prevent asphyxiation. She removed the inflatable bag from the bib to demonstrate how it works. When triggered, a fan blows air into the bag and can deflate when flipping the intake side—something Kalah said she discovered by accident.
“If this were to really be successful, it would need a stronger fan,” she explained.
An invention that was popular among students visiting the convention was the “Catema,” a cat cinema invented by Ethan Gay. His contraption aimed to provide a way to keep cats entertained when they cannot go outside. Other students marveled as they looked through a lens to watch a video being played on a smartphone at the top of the accordion-like structure. “It’s like a movie,” one of them said.
Tibbs said she was impressed with how far the students have come since that arcade assignment.
“I am pleased to say that I had about two that couldn’t get all the way through … but the rest of these—with just a little bit of help—they were ready to go,” she said. “I’m hoping from here, they’ll be able to actually think of problems and make their own inventions on their own. … It’s a lot of work, and they made it.”
