Index card science: invention competitions have become school-wide activities involving parents and the entire community.

Most K-12 students learn about the lives and achievements of the great inventors--Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and the Wright brothers--through reading, writing reports and making presentations. But in spite of the critical importance of hands-on learning--particularly in science--there are comparatively few opportunities where students can practice inventive thinking themselves, explore creative ideas and develop their own inventions. Nevertheless, inventing is a cornerstone of our society, and finding solutions to problems is important to us. That's why it makes sense to augment the K-12 curriculum with an invention dimension.

Inventing experiences enhance student process skills such as measuring, experimenting, record keeping and interpreting data. They also encourage perseverance, collaboration and feelings of accomplishment, and teach students to look at things in unique ways. For example, an individual might see a common plastic food container as a musical instrument, bird feeder, timing device or worm guard for a tomato plant. But the excitement is in the doing.

The Index-Card Curriculum

It was with this frame of reference that I developed a core of easy-to-use science curriculum activities that would give students opportunities to invent. After doing countless K-12 science staff development programs with teachers who didn't have or couldn't afford equipment in many of our workshops, I decided to use only materials I could guarantee were available in every school. These included items such as notebook paper, paperclips, tape, crayons, scissors, rulers, pencils, markers and straws. However, it turned out that the lined 3 x 5 inch index card held the greatest potential for development, and what emerged became known as the "index-card curriculum."

To generate activities, we followed a three-step process that was repeated time and again: copy, adapt and invent. First we scoured the major science curriculum programs and borrowed any activities that used index cards. For example, an early selection called "The Holdup" asked each student to fold and tape a single index card in some way so it could act as a pedestal and support the weight of a heavy textbook off a table. Students were then asked to work in teams and find out how many books could be balanced on a single well-designed card. When holdup records grew to more than fifty books, we knew that surprises were ahead.

The second step was to return to the materials-centered science programs and adapt different kinds of activities for use with index cards. We made card versions of all sorts of metal, plastic and wooden devices, and soon had a burgeoning roster of index card investigations grouped in categories including sound, optical illusions, color, flight and measuring devices. In fact, people around us "almost" got used to constantly hearing, "I wonder how I can make that from an index card?"

After gaining experience with index cards as a creative medium, the third step came when we discovered the sheer joy of inventing, and designed activities that we believed were completely original. But the greater pleasures came in sharing "copy-adapt-invent" experiences in classrooms, and seeing the activities invented by students.

Classroom Applications

Inventing activities were usually introduced by providing participants with a pan of tools and materials--scissors, masking tape, rulers, paperclips, dowels, match sticks, elastic bands and, of course, index cards--and giving them an ice-breaker problem such as "the holdup." We also distributed idea lists and problem cards, demonstrated how to make selected inventions, showed different kinds of solutions, and listed directions on chalkboards, whiteboards or newsprint pads.

After "copy and adapt" experience, we then introduced the concept of "the challenge," where students were given a card problem to work on at home using any added materials and bring the solutions to class. Depending on ages, challenges included inventing helicopters (see the sample solutions in the sidebar), spinning tops, sundials, devices for measuring force and devices to monitor air temperature changes. At sharing time, we were typically amazed by the variety of designs that achieved the same goals, all centered on index cards.

Another useful concept was the "action question," which we defined as any question that required a physical answer, such as predicting how high a ball would bounce. For example, younger students experimented to find out how designs could be adjusted to make helicopters rotate in opposite directions, and older students investigated factors affecting rotation speed. While most teachers integrated inventing activities into various lesson plans, some developed complete teaching units on the topic.

Extending the Concepts

The same design and experiment concepts of index-card activities can be extended to any sort of materials. For example, the popular "Project Egg Drop" competitions, where students invent carriers to protect raw eggs dropped from above, have become school-wide activities involving parents and the entire community. And events such as "inventors workshops" and "invention conventions" have included other schools, such as "Invent Iowa," www.aea10.k12.ia. us/webfiles/curr/inventiowa.html, where winning local and regional K-8 student inventions compete at state level competitions.

There are several organizations that sponsor inventing activities in K-12 schools, such as Partnership for America's Future, which gives annual awards through the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors. It has helped more than 50 students and teachers turn inventions into products on the national market. Similarly, the National Science Teachers Association offers the annual Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Program where individual students in grades 2-5 and 6-8 design and build tools for practical functions. Recent inventions have included a milk jug masher, a push-me/pull-me wheelbarrow, a one-step bed-maker, and a dry eyes onion slicer.

Inventing opportunities support current attention to "constructivist" learning in science, where students construct knowledge through applying prior knowledge and experience in new and engaging situations. Inventing also crosses into other curriculum areas, as students research, write descriptions, construct models and present findings to others. Web searches on phrases such as "student inventions" will give you lots of ideas, and link you to examples of programs and completed projects.

One School's Story

Invention dimensions are thriving at the East Hartford/Glastonbury Magnet School, in East Hartford, Conn., and every elementary grade level participates. First grade teachers Eileen Packard and Lesley Mroz have done a variety of student activities starting with a field trip to the Connecticut Resource Recovery Center recycling plant to see a tower of trash, and discuss how items could be reinvented with new uses. Back in the classroom, Packard performs her original Junk Puppet song while other teachers assemble the puppet from trash materials as she sings, and later students make their own inventions that they share with a "buddy class" of fourth-graders. Packard varies the experience each year with themes such as designing and testing a clay boat, or solving a personal problem--a "baby brother shield" invented by one student was written up in the local newspaper.

Similarly, the K-6 science teacher Donna Rand-Bidwell offers a week of Take-Apart Labs where parent volunteers work with groups of students in dismantling various types of mechanical devices to see how they are constructed. In addition to learning first-hand about inventions, the students recycle the parts to use in their own creations.

Each year, the culminating inventing activity is the school-wide Invention Convention, and winning inventions are also selected to compete at the state level. As Packard says, "inventing activities teach students to see problems as having doable, concrete solutions." And perhaps this changed attitude is the greatest benefit of inventing opportunities; a confident attitude that says consistently "there must be some other way."

CHALLENGE: Invent a Helicopter

SOLUTION 1: THE OCTOPUS HELICOPTER

1. Fold the bottom of the card as shown, and make a sharp crease.

2. Open the card and make a series of equally spaced cuts that are approximately two white spaces apart, down to the crease line.

3. Bend the base around in a circle, as if you were making a miniature headdress.

4. Tape the ends of the base together to make a tube, without overlapping the ends, and bend the blades out so that they are horizontal.

5. Launch the helicopter by rotating it slightly as you drop it, either tube side up or tube side down. Is your helicopter "right-handed" or "left-handed"?

SOLUTION 2: THE WHIRLEYBIRD

1. Cut a longitudinal strip that is six white spaces wide (it will have five blue lines on it).

2. Fold the card in half across the blue lines, make a sharp crease and open the card up again.

3. Make five cuts along and across the blue lines as shown, and discard the two pieces marked X.

4. Fold the blades horizontally in opposite directions along the crease line.

5. Add one or two paperclip weights to the bottom.

6. Launch the helicopter by either dropping it or by throwing it up in the air.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Odvard Egil Dyrli, [e-mail], is senior editor and emeritus professor of education at the University of Connecticut.