Trial and error was a practice used by many famous inventors, so that’s the model that students are following at Wantagh Elementary School. Children in grades 3-5 are immersed in an inventions unit in STEAM classes with teacher Kaitlin Humphrey. 

Each group has a separate task. In third grade, students have to create an invention related to their desk chair at school. Fourth graders are solving problems related to lunch time and fifth graders must come up with inventions that are travel-related. Some of the fifth grade innovations include a snack dispenser for the car or a way to hang up a backpack on the bus.  

Ms. Humphrey explained to students that inventions are born by people trying to seek solutions to problems. Her young inventors followed the engineering design process for their creations. They brainstormed ideas and drew blueprints before building their prototypes out of recycled materials. She also added that students were told to think about functionality over aesthetics for their products. 

At the end of the unit, each group will create a video using green-screen technology to promote their inventions.