Kid Inventors’ Day
By Rachel Ware
Kid Inventors’ Day (or KID for short) on January 17th is a day to celebrate the young inventors of the past and present. The date was chosen for Benjamin Franklin’s birthday, who started as an inventor around age 11 with swim flippers for one’s hands. Children and teens create thousands of inventions every year from apps to air purifying techniques to a wall climbing backpack, their creativity covers all domains.
I remember when I was younger my family had what we called an idea journal to write down any inventions we thought of. I think this was a great way to practice creativity even though I did not end up making any inventions. However, with the contests for kid inventors, there are many chances to get mentorship, resources, and recognition for the ideas of kids. For example, the annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge is running right now for 5th to 8th graders, and I was able to see what the past finalists did on the website. Just as we encourage students to find ways to create projects that address the needs of their communities and the world at CGEST, these kids are engineering solutions to problems like delivering food to communities in food deserts with an autonomous car that grows plants on itself. It is a beautiful thing for children to be supported in their ideas and learn the technical skills to bring them into practice.
You can be involved in this day by sharing it and supporting kids' inventions. A few recommendations from the Kid Inventors’ Day website: host an invention competition, start a young inventors club, keep an invention journal, or design an invention yourself! You can be an inventor at any time by continuing to learn, observe, and try out your ideas.
References:
