by Wanda Emmerling, Editor, Clio School Bell

     A poster bearing the Einstein quote, "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" hangs outside room 117 at Carter Middle School.  Inside, about 50 students have turned out for the weekly meeting of the Young Inventor's Program.

    The new club, which started in January, is for 5th and 6th graders and is co-sponsored by teachers Carol Cross and Barb Bakke.  With funding from the Flint Area Chamber of Commerce. the Young Inventors Program is based on a program first started in Minneapolis, Minn.  Students are encouraged to use critical thinking skills and the scientific method to come up with their own inventions.

    Cross said a strong component of the program is the use of teamwork and creativity to produce an end result, a product of invention.  Students use workbooks provided by the Flint Area Chamber of Commerce and the training expenses for the staff were also covered by the chamber.  Cross said the Flint Area Chamber of Commerce works in conjunction with the Inventors Group of Greater Flint.

    Teachers support for the program runs high. "I was very impressed with the response from teachers," said Cross, adding that a representative from every fifth and sixth grade teaching team attended a workshop about the program.

    In the Wednesday program, students can use the Internet for research on inventions and are often given an activity where they implement the scientific process to assemble a project, using common items like toothpicks, rubber bands, and Styrofoam packaging peanuts.

    The students have been encouraged to make inventions to enter the Young Inventors Fair, which will be April 27 at the Genesee Valley Center.  The fair will showcase the top 100 projects from schools in the area.

    One students said she is trying to invent a product that will have some type of pulley system that would help a handicapped person avoid lifting a chair. Instead, the chair would come to that person.

Reprinted from Clio School Bell, Volume XVIIII, Number 31, February-March 2001