The material on this page complements the academic paper "Children as inventors: Orchestrating an informal pedagogic scenario with digital resources" which is published elsewhere. In the Table below are short movies that were made in reponse to ideas generated by children in the "inventors workshop" that took place at a primary school in Nottingham. Click on the pictures to see the animations

The animations are flash files and will loop continuously if played in the browser

   
birdfeeder

The problem behind this invention is found in the student's garden. A bird feeder is dominated by the presence of large birds - at the expense of smaller ones. How can the big birds be selectively kept away?

Solution: incorporate perches on the feeder that will not take the weight of the big birds. When they land their weight forces down the perche and they are rejected

eraser

The problem is a pencil eraser/rubber that picks up too much lead in its work and periodically needs to be cleaned.

Solution: Eraser is inserted in a box whose blade shaves off the offending surface

kettle

The problem is disposing of unwanted waste (and not using landfill)

Solution: ignite it and use the flame to boil water

moonchair

Problem: my rocking moonchair throws me out when I accidently fall asleep while rocking

Solution: under the foot of the chair is a microswtch which when it hits the floot, pushes the chair back and wakes up the user

bathroom

Problem: my bathroom is boring

Solution: fill the entire room with water and let in fish

teeth

Problem: brushing teeth is boring

Sollution: a robot toothbrush

tap

Problem: my tap is stiff and difficult to turn on. Older people might also have a problem

Sollution: a tap whose flow is activated by passing the hand over a detector