ROSSMOOR : Competition Honors Pupils’ Inventiveness

For 5-year-old Ashley Fuller, thinking of an invention for Rossmoor Elementary School’s “Invent America” contest was easy. The blonde kindergartner just recalled the time her family was flying home when a sister’s dinner tray fell into her lap.

To avoid future mishaps, Ashley invented “Sticky Meals,” a lap tray with Velcro on it to secure a drinking glass and dinner plate.

Ashley was one of six pupils at the elementary school who were honored at an outdoor assembly Wednesday for their winning inventions. The winners were selected from a field of 91 entries and were chosen for their originality and usefulness.

The event was part of the nationwide “Invent America” program launched in 1987 by then-Vice President George Bush, who now serves as its honorary chairman. The program is meant to encourage creativity and thinking among students, Rossmoor Principal Laurel Telfer said.

Telfer said the school decided to hold the contest in place of the annual science fair and is thinking of making the competition an annual event.

Parent Jack Rosenthal was instrumental in bringing the program to the school. Rosenthal, whose son, Marcus, was honored for his “Blanket Holder” invention, asked the school to hold the contest because he was concerned about the lack of American inventors in recent times.

He said the number of patents being awarded to foreigners has steadily increased, and the chances appeared bleak for a future Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell.

So science teacher Claudia Ross agreed to organize the event and was sent by the school to Washington, D.C., for special training. She said she was pleased with the program’s impact on the pupils.

“I think inventors are a very rare breed and we should try to nurture them and develop them,” Ross said.

For pupils such as 9-year-old Joanna Ziegler the experience was an opportunity for personal expression. The red-haired third-grader incorporated her favorite snacks and her concern for the environment into an invention called “The Snack Recycler.” For every 15 aluminum cans placed inside the recycler, which crushes the cans, a bag of Corn Nuts, sunflower seeds or M&Ms; slides out.

The six winning entries will advance to a state competition to determine 45 regional winners that will be sent to a national contest in Washington, D.C.

All contest entries will be on display at the school tonight during an open house.