Student wheels spin at Invention Convention
Fourth-graders at Washington-Caldwell showed off their inner Edison last week during the school’s annual Invention Convention.
A decade-old tradition that began with teacher Char Wegner, the Invention Convention allows students to examine ways of making every-day tasks more efficient, much like Eli Whitney with his cotton gin, and Henry Ford with the assembly line.
Teacher Angie Bailen, who coordinated the April 24 event, said the ideas students come up with continue to amaze her.
Projects ranged from candy dispensers to a cookie dunker.
The Invention Convention is the culmination of what the fourth graders learn in her science curriculum, according to Bailen.
“We do a simple machines unit, and we cover wheel and axle, screw, wedge, lever, pulley, and inclined plane,” she explained. “Each invention contained at least one simple machine.”
Besides creating their very own machines, students wrote essays about their pieces, and worked on their demonstration skills.
Other inventions included LEGO organizers and dispensers, a pet toy slingshot, a fitted-sheet folder, a nail polish bottle holder, and a shoe carrousel. One student, Robby Cannon, made a pulley, called The Lifter, to lift school supplies without having to bend down, Bailen added.
“I am so very proud of all my students. I can tell they worked very hard on their inventions and essays,” she said.
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