Kids get creative for Invention Convention

Contraptions must fulfill need or solve problem

SPRINGFIELD — When Kaylee’s Stamper’s 3-year-old brother Joseph puts on his shoes, he sometimes needs a little extra help.

When Kaylee needed to create a project for Warder Park Wayne Elementary School’s Invention Convention, Joseph became her inspiration. Kaylee created a pair of tennis shoes she calls “Teachers.”

“They teach kids to put their shoes on right,” explained Kaylee, a fourth-grader, at Springfield City Schools’ districtwide Invention Convention Tuesday, Jan. 26. “If the green is on the inside, your shoes are on right. If the red is on the inside, the shoes are on wrong.”

Fifty projects from five elementary schools were invited to participate in this year’s Invention Convention and 17 will move on to the Miami Valley regional competition, said Elena Ackerson, coordinator.

Invention Convention calls on students to devise an original contraption to fulfill a need or solve a problem. Many of the Springfield City Schools’ students looked to their families for inspiration for their projects.

“My mom’s hand always gets stuck when she tries to put the seatbelt through here (on the carseat),” Jade Burnett said of her work, the “Baby Bucca Bar.” The bar pulls the seatbelt through the small slot of her little sister’s carseat.

But Invention Convention helps kids learn important lessons as well, said fourth-grader Jacob Taylor.

“I learn to be creative and I also learn to fix problems, be a problem solver and I can’t give up the first problem that happens,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0373 or mgildow@coxohio.com.

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