4 inventions kids from P.S. 307 want to create: Big Ideas Week 2014

To develop more inventive adults, we ought to inspire kids with invention early.

In celebration of the second annual Big Idea Week, hip hop learning platform Flocabulary and the DUMBO Business Improve District partnered to bring students from P.S. 307 down to the Made In NY Media Center, present to them on what it means to be an inventor and then give them a week to propose some inventions that could solve problems that they saw.

In the first of two sessions, makers from companies like Pensa, Tattly, BioLite and J.R. Sports Brief presented on how their company went about solving a problem.

Throughout the week, the students went through a curriculum on innovation. P.S. 307 has been a Federal Magnet STEM school since 2013. One selected idea will ultimately be prototyped through Maker’s Row, the factory sourcing platform. The previous year’s winner, the Pillowket (a combination blanket and pillow for bus travel) was shown off at the first event.

Some of the ideas presented at the end of the week:

• Double Skater: footwear that had both wheels and a blade embedded in the sole to enable switching between shoe, roller skating and ice-skating.
• Dunk Magic: a basketball hoop with different heights to help shorter people work on dunking.
• Fashion Zip-Zap: an app that knows all your clothes and picks out outfits for you.
• Tec Toy: a machine that could reproduce toys seen on the Internet through clay and plastic printing.

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