Allan Appel Photo
Welcome, folks, to the great “ClipNator,” a recent invention of 5th grader Derrick Sims. Yessiree, guaranteed so your child will never misplace his or her pencil ever again.
Sure, it makes shaking hands a little dangerous. And it’s not great for circulation of the blood.
Never you mind. Step right up and you will see the spirit of invention and creativity is alive and well at an after-school program called Invention Convention.
And teacher Eva Landau thinks it’s just the antidote to the teach-to-the-test atmosphere that pervades American public education.
Wednesday afternoon was the fifth of seven two-hour weekly sessions of Invention Convention Landau conducted for Derrick (on right) and about 15 fourth and fifth-graders at Mauro-Sheridan Science, Technology, and Communications Interdistrict Magnet School.
Thursdays Landau does the curriculum for third graders. It will culminate in some of the kids actually showing their inventions to a statewide convention at the University of Connecticut in May.
The program is being conducted in four other New Haven schools.
Before he combined clip, tape, pipe cleaner, and rubber band to invent the ClipNator to solve the perennial Student’s Lost Pencil Problem, Derrick and Brian Brigham had competing solutions for how to fix Landau’s loose and laceless sneaker, which was one of the session’s warm-up tasks.
They had to choose from an assortment of household items their teacher provided to make the needed repairs. Derrick preferred five or six colorful pipe cleaners to function as faux laces. Not bad.
Brian preferred tape. An atmosphere of entrepreneurial competitiveness was noticeable.
As a low chant of “Duct tape, Duct tape,” filled the sunny classroom, Brian realized he’d have to settle for Scotch tape. The usually ubiquitous duct tape was nowhere to be found.
Brian made his first attempt applying the tape directly to tongue and eyelets. When he was done, the shoe was offered to Landau. Her job was to make the determination of an invention’s basic requirement for success: Did it work?
As she donned the shoe and proceeded to prance across the room, the shoe slipped off.
Back to the drawing board for Brian.
He now applied the tape across a more secure underlayer created from half a paper towel cardboard tube sliced down the middle and inserted between shoe tongue and eyelets. He secured this with tape, and more tape. Lots of tape. A whole lot of tape.
“But will it work?” prodded Landau?
There followed discussion of how the tape might stick to the ground, or get sticky and melt in the warm weather — which after all is when people wear sneakers.
No problem. Brian applied more tape. He would have preferred the much beloved duct tape, which is stronger. But a new solution occurred to him: Attach the trusty tape dispenser itself to the sneaker itself, by tape of course. That way there will always be more tape.
Other kids like Lydia Donnelly gave an artistic turn to solving the lost pencil problem. She created a belt holder for kids, complete with pencil sharpener in the dashing sash.
“It’s pointy,” she said, after demonstrating that the colorful belt also worked.
Landau urged Lydia to wear her invention to school the next day. She told the kids that she is often up on a ladder or chair stapling objects to the higher reaches of the classroom wall when the staples run out. If she had a belt with extra staples in it … well, the point was taken.
Kids were learning problem solving, and having a good time at doing so.
Landau pronounced the convention a perfect fit for her school. “It’s so simple, but we don’t teach daily problem solving. We teach formulas and equations. Creativity is not in school anymore.”
Next week the kids are to improve upon an invention that already improved upon the bulky ketchup dispenser: the ubiquitous take-out packet of ketchup.
In March and April they create their own inventions based on a theme of “what bugs you,” that is, the creaky door at home or the pillow that is always springing a little hole, or that favorite hairband that’s cracking, or the necklace whose clasp is always coming undone.
School winners may get to attend Invention Convention’s big event at UConn on May 1 .
The interactions, combined with the fun, allowed kids to teach each other: As they gathered books and coats to meet their parents (it was report card night beginning at 5), Derrick noticed his fingers turning an odd color beneath the great ClipNator. “I’m losing my circulation,” he reported.
“What’s circulation?” asked fourth-grader Shane Stephenson.
“Blood,” said fifth-grader Steven Marra.
After he removed the great ClipNator, Derrick, undaunted, was heard to declare to Brian, “I win! I win! I am the Superior Master to the tape.”
