Necessity and the Students of Invention

IRVINE — You take your dog for a morning stroll around the neighborhood. At one stop, your pet begins to squat. Or you’re in the parking lot of a supermarket, lose control of your shopping cart and it goes careening into someone’s car.

Each would normally be a problem, if not for the resourcefulness of two third-graders who came up with the Super Scooper and the Cart Stopper.

Those were but two of about 275 creations displayed Saturday at the 10th Annual Astounding Inventions of the Future fair held at Irvine Valley College.

Handmade inventions by Orange County students in first through eighth grades included a Basketball Boomerang that sends the ball back to the shooter and a Never-Ending Toothpaste toothbrush that provides a continuous flow of toothpaste through the handle.

“You’re supposed to brush for at least two minutes to get your teeth clean,” said the inventor, 7-year-old Joey Agosta. “But people run out of toothpaste, so they don’t brush long enough. My brush would give them a lot of toothpaste.”

Dave Christensen, one of the many judges at the fair, said gadgets such as Joey’s toothbrush are “incredible.” He marveled at “the things kids see and how they would solve everyday problems.”

Some inventions seemed so practical that adults couldn’t understand why the products don’t exist already.

The grand prize for Most Practical Invention, for instance, went to one fifth-grader who created a device that directs drivers to an empty parking space in crowded lots.

A light- or metal-sensor is placed on the surface of each parking spot, and each sensor is electronically connected to a large sign at the entrance of the lot. The sign illustrates the layout of the parking spaces. A light on the board goes off for every space taken, allowing drivers to see where the empty spots are.

“I was in LAX and we couldn’t find any slot,” said 10-year-old Keerthi Prabhala, who calls his invention EZ Parking. “So I invented this because looking for parking can cause stress.”

Kimberly Larson, 8, came up with the Super Scooper, a long-handle duster with the back cut out and connected to a plastic bag. Kimberly also rigged the broom, replacing the bristles with a thick Masonite board to allow for quick sweeping.

“This invention makes it so there isn’t a need for someone to hold a bag,” Kimberly told judges.

“I belong to a homeowners association, and this is the No. 1 complaint that we have,” said judge Michael Ward about the dog droppings left in his neighborhood. Kimberly’s invention won the red ribbon, or second place, for third-graders.

Judges also were impressed with third-grader Nicholas Ellis’ Cart Stopper. The 8-year-old’s gadget is made of a paper plate covered with modeling clay. Nicholas made a circular indentation in the middle to serve as a wheel “groove.”

He told judges he would have the contraption placed at a corner of each parking space outside a supermarket. After putting groceries in their cars, patrons could put a wheel of the cart on the Cart Stopper’s groove to park the cart.

Of course, if parking lot owners were to use his invention, Nicholas said, they would have to use material more lasting than a paper plate and modeling clay. But the judges got the picture. They awarded him a blue ribbon in the third-grade level.