2nd-Grader Has Brush With Success
Christina Ann Kramer could not remember to brush her teeth before bedtime. So when Balboa Gifted Magnet teacher Christy Wyatt assigned Christina’s second-grade class to devise their own inventions, the 7-year-old said, “Eureka!”
“I thought seeing my toothbrush right at the dinner table would help me remember,” she said. “My parents think the idea was brilliant.”
Christina’s “Toothbrush Fork”--a utensil with a fork on one side and a toothbrush on the other--drew rounds of applause and cheers at the Northridge school during its annual Invention Convention last week.
About 60 family members heard mock pitches for and saw demonstrations of everything from a device to keep a balloon from flying away during a birthday party to an electric tool designed to help locate a missing bedroom slipper.
Many in the audience were scratching their heads with “why didn’t I think of that?” looks, while others were amused at the students’ creative approaches to life’s simplest quandaries, Wyatt said.
Among other inventions were “The EZ Brush,” by Kristina Jasmine Tatiossian, which holds toothpaste in the handle of the toothbrush; Kevin Kao’s “Vibrating Alarm Pillow” to prevent sleeping through the morning alarm; and the “Shopping List Clip,” developed by Brandon Michael Shaw.
“My mom kept coming home from the grocery store telling us stories that she had no place to put her shopping list,” said Brandon, 7. Her list kept falling on the floor.
In addition to developing prototypes, the students delivered mock commercial pitches to the audience. In a tip to e-commerce, many students said their products were available on the Internet.
“They are all little Edisons in the making,” Wyatt said.
Some of the inventions will be sent to the International Invention Convention, a contest sponsored by textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Co..
KUDOS
Budding Builders: Two students from the newly created John F. Kennedy Architecture and Urban Planning Magnet in Granada Hills won gold medals recently in the job interview portion of the regional Skills USA VICA competition for outstanding technical and leadership abilities.
Abigail Potter, 15, of Granada Hills and Linda Yu, 14, of Chatsworth will compete this month at state level of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America competition. They won by landing mock entry-level positions at an architectural firm. Three judges evaluated their cover letters, resumes, portfolio of work and poise during an in-person interview.
“The students really thought on their feet,” architecture teacher Aaron Kahlenberg said. “Life is a competition. The students need to have these skills to succeed.”
Silver medalists in the interview competition were Varsenik Papazyan, 14, of Van Nuys and Arlene Cuevas, 15, of Arleta.
More than 500 high school and community college students from Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties participated in the regional competition.
Kennedy’s architectural magnet, in its first year of operation, has 61 students enrolled. Unique to Los Angeles Unified School District, it is designed to prepare students for a college architecture program
The specialized school was developed in response to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when much of the school was damaged and in need of rebuilding.
Speaking Up: Three 11th-graders from Granada Hills High School recently won an oratory contest on the theme, “Where Would I Be Without Freedom?” sponsored by the Northridge Optimist Club.
Eun “Judy” Kim placed first with her 500-word essay about life without freedoms experienced by Jews in Nazi Germany and African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement.
Daniel Winston placed second and Sarah Kantrowitz third.
Living History: Longtime third-grade teachers Naomi Calof and Sandra Kligman at Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School in Northridge have been recognized for outstanding history instruction. They received the Historical Society of Southern California’s Joseph S. O’Flaherty Distinguished Teaching Award.
Calof and Kligman were selected for their “Native American Cultures in the Southwest” curriculum. It starts by introducing students to the early Chumash and Gabrielino Indians who lived in the San Fernando Valley and ends in a five-day trip to New Mexico and Arizona, where the students meet with their yearlong Navajo pen pals from Chinle, Ariz.
“The students learn to respect another culture and that there are differences and similarities too,” Kligman said.
In May, the students plan on introducing their third-grade pen pals to the TuB’Shvat Jewish holiday that pays respect to trees and plants.
Calof and Kligman have taught the program to their classes for nearly 20 years.
French Tour: Julia Hu, a 10th-grader at North Hollywood High School’s Highly Gifted Magnet is headed to France this summer as one of four Southern California grand prize winners in an essay contest sponsored by American University of Paris. While in Paris, Hu will attend the university’s French immersion program.
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