Engineering invention and imagination at the DeMello School
The Invention Convention team gives Silly Soap Stamps to the School Committee. Source: DHSTVmedia
One class presents the "Grapple 104." Source: DHSTVmedia
One class presents their way to throw trash out from two feet away. Source: DHSTVmedia
The Invention Convention team gives Silly Soap Stamps to the School Committee. Source: DHSTVmedia
One class presents the "Grapple 104." Source: DHSTVmedia
One class presents their way to throw trash out from two feet away. Source: DHSTVmedia
The DeMello School may be nurturing the next Thomas Edison or Ruth Graves Wakefield.
The school is encouraging kids to learn about inventing through their Invention Convention team and fourth grade Eureka! unit.
The Invention Convention team gives students an opportunity to solve a problem by designing an invention. They then bring their invention to Bridgewater State University for a yearly contest, and the DeMello team has won the past two years.
“This year's team is off to an amazing start,” said Liz Voci, who is the instructional technology specialist for the DeMello and Cushman schools.
This year the kids had two ideas: a fidget water bottle to encourage health and a stamp to encourage kids to wash their hands.
The students decided to create the Silly Soap Stamp Stands, a stamp filled with ink that is also soap, so students have to wash their hands to remove the stamp. The stamps will be set up in classrooms for students to use before going to the bathroom.
On Monday, Feb. 9 the students brought the initial prototype to a School Committee meeting where they used the School Committee members as guinea pigs, stamping each of their hands.
The fourth graders are also getting a start on their inventing futures through the Eureka! Unit. Students learn about famous inventors like Edison and Graves Wakefield, who invented the chocolate chip cookie, before starting their own projects.
The students were given a problem to solve like finding a way to throw a wad of paper away when you’re standing two feet away from a trash can.
One class created a ramp out of cardboard, tape and string that moves the trash from where they sit to the trash can using gravity. The other class made the “Grapple 104,” a grabber with cardboard, tape, string, popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. This worked by picking the trash up with the grapple and then placing it in the trash can.
“Invention breeds invention,” said Phoenix, one of the fourth graders and an inventor of the Grapple 104.
