Peterson’s children of invention

Andrew Edwards

Boasting contraptions that could have made Rube Goldberg or Dr. Seuss

envious, fifth-graders at Peterson Elementary showed off their

creative and mechanical skills with an array of original inventions.

Students in Linda Perkins’ fifth-grade class spent five weeks

developing their inventions before showing them off at the school

science fair on Feb. 5. Kids presented their projects to fellow

students in the daytime, then parents were invited in the evening to

take a look at the inventions and science projects completed by

children in other grade levels.

The projects exacted hours of hard work and creativity from

students, as well as plenty of plywood, glue and string.

A point of the lesson was to teach the class about the six simple

machines: the screw, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wheel, the

lever and the wedge. Additionally, Perkins wanted her students to

realize how much they are capable of.

“A lot of the kids don’t believe they can do this and it shows

them how far they can take their creativity and ingenuity,” Perkins

said.

Backing up the old adage that necessity is the mother of

invention, students said their creations originated as ideas for

time-saving methods to do chores or better ways to have fun.

One of the more elaborate inventions was 10-year-old Matthew

Ferretti’s “Fruit Harvester 5000.” Matthew’s project, in essence a

miniature wooden agricultural machine on scooter wheels, used all of

the simple machines Perkins taught her class, except the wedge.

Designed to collect pieces of fruit from the ground, Matthew’s

invention uses a scoop to pick up fruit. The scoop carries the fruit

up to a plastic chute, where it slides down into a net.

Matthew said he came up with the idea after his family returned

home from vacation and discovered that several oranges had fallen

from a tree onto their yard.

“It was really stinky and we had to pick them up by hand,” Matthew

said.

A second project was “The Bug Catcher,” designed by 10-year-old

Anna Gault. Resembling a huge pair of scissors, Anna’s project boasts

two 4-foot pieces of wood with a plastic container on the ends that

can be used to catch flying insects.

The person using the invention can open and close the container as

they would use a pair of scissors, and trap bugs by swinging the

contraption shut. Once captured, an insect has nowhere to go but for

a plastic tube that leads from the closed container down to a bag.

“You seal the bag and you take it outside and you let the bug

free,” Anna said.

Though her project has obvious pest-control applications, Anna

said she received her inspiration for the invention while at recess.

“All the ladybugs storm the Peterson playground and we catch them

for fun,” Anna said.

“I thought it would be easier for fun if I catch them with a

bug-catcher,” she added.

An invention with Surf City written all over it, the “Surfboard

Waxer 3000” was created by 10-year-old Michael Hauss. The device uses

a hand-turned crank to move a surfboard back and forth under a

platform that has a supply of surf wax attached on its bottom side.

As a surfer turns the crank, the wax on the platform rubs off onto

the board.

“The purpose is to let surfers spend more time catching waves than

waxing their surfboard,” Michael said.

Other creations demonstrated by Perkins’ students included a

drink-mixing machine, a dog-bathing device, automatic fish and cat

feeders and a pulley system that carries mail from the mailbox to the

front door.

Also demonstrated were a toy-car washing machine that looked like

a small version of an automated car wash. It used feather dusters to

scrub toy cars clean and a nutcracker that sends a hammer crashing

down to bust nut shells wide open.