Students Make Pitch for Own Inventions

Like miniature actors in a disjointed infomercial, students at Balboa Magnet School extolled the virtues of their inventions, appealing to their audience’s most basic needs.

“Are you tired of getting milk for your child?” one second-grader asked his audience. “Are you tired of cleaning up the mess your child makes when he’s trying to get it himself?”

Well, Timothy Shin’s new no-muss, no-fuss contraption that pumps milk into a glass promises kids “independence in getting their own drink.”

His Automatic Milk Dispenser was one of 20 inventions the children in Christy Wyatt’s second-grade class exhibited for their parents Friday at the school’s annual “Invention Convention.”

Wyatt said two or three of the inventions will be entered this year in the U.S. Patent Model Foundation’s “Invent America” program, designed to encourage creative thinking and problem-solving techniques. They will be judged along with projects submitted by students nationwide in competition for a $500 prize.

“Every year I am amazed at what small children can invent,” said Wyatt, who conducted the project since its 1987 inception.

“We as adults have a hard time sitting down and actually inventing something, but at this point in their lives they have so many ideas, they have a hard time choosing which one to build.”

The class project began in September, with weekly lessons designed to stimulate students into thinking about what makes things work.

The problems the students addressed with their projects ran the gamut from the practical (School Bus Organizer) to the whimsical (Tooth Pick Fork) to the indulgent (Toilet Book Holder).

Although many projects were built solely by the students, the helping hand of a parent was evident in most, including one boy who made that point clear as he displayed his No Spill TV Tray.

“I wanted to be able to fold it up, but Dad couldn’t figure that out,” said Dean Takashima, as his father proudly videotaped his presentation.