Think inventions

NEA Today, Apr 1999

Who:

Elaine Mendelow

Job:

Teacher of the gifted, grades 2, 3, 4, Memorial School, Cinnaminson, New Jersey

Bright Idea:

For 14 years, Mendelow has stirred young minds through inventions, encouraging students to devise creations that will improve their lives.

"It's not just the gifted who can be inventors," Mendelow notes. "It's those divergent thinkers" who can be inspired to pull together all aspects of their learning to create something new.

Every year,

Mendelow runs interactive invention assemblies at each school in her district. Students brainstorm in groups and leave the assemblies psyched, application forms in hand.

Last year,

Cinnaminson students submitted 100 inventions to the district's contest.

Jordon Wompierski and Carly Snyder, tired of waiting in the cold for the school bus, created JC's Bus-O-Matic. A bus transmitter sends a signal to a receiver in the home that tells a family when the bus is a half mile away. The invention made the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the students appeared on The Today Show.

"Lots of girls are inventing," says Mendelow, "and they're not inventing gender-related items."

One girl is working on a doorknob that will glow in the dark if there's heat on the other side. The student first focused on chemistry for her solution, until Mendelow introduced her to a member of the community who suggested engineering approaches.

Students keep detailed logs of their process, noting what did and didn't work. "We talk about how it's OK to make mistakes-that what's important is how we learn from mistakes," says Mendelow.

Impact:

Some young inventors have found new ways to approach problem solving. Others have found a career. Years ago, 10-year-old Amy Seiden invented the "The Reel Putter" She patented her idea, grew up to become an entrepreneur, and now manufactures the product for Exec-U-Putt Inc.

For More:

Contact Mendelow, author of Building Bridges: Creativity to Invention: A Step-by-Step Guide for Teachers ($24.95, BE Associates, 800/886-0209), at Memorial School, 2195 Riverton Rd., Cinnaminson, NJ 08077, 609/786-5310, xt. 640. Or send E-mail tc 76125.66@ compuserve. com.