New Jersey has always been a hotbed for the some of the world’s greatest minds. Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and John Forbes Nash Jr. uncovered some of their most impressive discoveries within 90 minutes of Hoboken. Now some of the Mile-Square City’s brightest young inventors have been hard at work trying to come up with their own creations.
The students at All Saints Episcopal Day School in grades one through seven recently participated in the school’s first ever Young Inventor’s Fair. The students were charged with the task of making a three-dimensional model of an idea for an invention. The models had to be handmade by the student and employ no more than $20 worth of supplies.
“One of the things that [the Young Inventor’s Fair] teaches is how to be creative,” said fifth/sixth grade teacher Tobin Greer Thursday about the event that was held on March 22. “It gives students the opportunity to identify a problem and come up with a solution of how to overcome that problem.”
The “best in show” winner was fifth grader John Fortunato, the inventor of the ATB, an “All Terrain Backpack.” It’s a backpack that can go anywhere in any weather. He actually got the idea some time ago when he was walking home in the snow, he said.
As is the fashion with today’s students, Fortunato has a type of bag with wheels that he can tote behind him as he walks. But on that cold day, he found it tough going through the snow.
“I was walking home from school and my wheels kept getting stuck in the snow,” Fortunato said Thursday from his classroom. “So I came up with ideas like having an umbrella and snowplow on the backpack so it can go through the snow.”
And that’s what Fortunato did. He created the world first weatherproof backpack. It is fitted with motorized wheels, an attached umbrella, and a snowplow. The young inventor even threw on a cup-holder for good measure.
“I though that it was a wonderful first Young Inventor’s Fair,” said the school’s principal, Elisabeth Deyo, Thursday. “I think that one of the best things about it is that the children got the parents involved. The students did the work, but the subject matter was so interesting that it really sparked a lot of discussion at home and that is always a good thing.”
Fourth grader Lana Foord won the fourth to sixth grade group with her innovative Dual Audio Earphones. Her invention includes two headsets that can plug into a single audio output. She said Thursday she came up with the idea when she and her brother would go to her mother’s office. They had to be quiet because their mother was working, and the television set only had one set of earphones. Lana said that she constantly argued with her brother over who could use the earphones. So she came up with a solution to help them both listen.
But not every invention is perfect, notes Foord.
“Now the only thing we argue about,” she said, “is what we are going to watch.”