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when i was in the 5th grade (give or take a couple years), there was an innovation project where we were to bring in and present to the class an invention. i r
by dfee 20d ago
when i was in the 5th grade (give or take a couple years), there was an innovation project where we were to bring in and present to the class an invention.
i remember a girl inventing what i now know to be a "flexible weighted dip tube" – think of it as a shampoo bottle that you can pump upside down – and was amazed.
like this submission, the flexible straw wasn't really invented by the student. at best it was independently discovered, but this patent was from at least twenty five years before: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3547296A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US3547296A/en
to that end, i wonder what the point of presenting these inventions as your own are – especially in the time of the internet when prior art is so easily discovered. or, did i miss the point?
- deleted 20d ago[deleted]
- nomel 20d agoI suspect she was pushed along by adults, with particular motives, more than anything. Regardless, nobody involved is honest, and I suspect the honest ones were told the be quiet.
- nomel 20d agoThey're either dishonest, or they're too stupid to know how to use the internet. You pick. Seriously, what's the alternative here? The only exception would be an honest person too afraid to speak up, to correct the dishonest/incompetent people, and I could agree with that. I don't blame the kid though. Looks like they did a great job on it!
- ninalanyon 20d ago> i wonder what the point of presenting these inventions as your own are Because if you independently invented it then it is your own. The value to the student is not necessarily that the idea is novel to everyone else but that is novel to her. And of course the process of invention and development is something that many people never experience, and is valuable in itself.
- IAmBroom 20d agoI invented a steam engine when I was in 5th grade. It wasn't completely novel nor efficient, but I invented it independently, and my science teacher showed enough interest to spur a 50-year warm memory. Praising kids for achievements is a net positive. They use it to focus their energy into future growth and development. The article is science-reporting trash, of course, but praising the kid is a good thing.