Local young entrepreneurs are showing their inventions on a national scale this week.

Celia Jiménez here, thinking about the K-12 students from California—including one from Royal Oaks and another from Aromas—who are attending the U.S. Invention Convention near Detroit this week, a worldwide invention education program by The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. These kids are getting ready to present the projects they’ve worked on over the past year or longer. 

The California Invention Convention began about nine years ago. The goal, says Brenda Payne, California Invention Convention’s executive director, was to build students’ problem-solving and creative thinking skills. 

“We ask students to identify a problem in their lives or their family or the community, and even in the world, and invent a solution using those skills,” Payne says. 

Students who participate are enrolled in after-school programs, and with their inventions, they participate in regional, state, national and international competitions. 

Payne says the convention has “serial inventors,” noting students start their ideas in kindergarten and develop them throughout the years (since students work on their projects for years, some create functional prototypes or patent their products). 

The goal is to increase access to STEM programs among young students. The projects students participate in don’t need a working prototype, and only require an investment of up to $50. 

“It has to be on a level that is doable for most any student,” Payne says. 

At the national level, 425 students are participating; of them, 125 are from California and several are from Pajaro Valley Unified School District, including fifth-grader Ahli Nieto from Royal Oaks, the inventor of “The Salt Sorter” that desalinates saltwater for consumption, and sixth-grader Gianna Pozzi-Loyola from Aromas, who created “Grip It,” a rectangular strip that aids people in grabbing a glass.

The convention takes place in Michigan, but the program is also coming to Salinas, with the California Invention Convention training Salinas City Elementary School District educators. 

The district is working with Hartnell College and the California Invention Convention to launch its Young Inventors Program for the upcoming school year, a six-week Saturday program followed by an after-school program, where students will have the opportunity to work on their projects and participate at the California Invention Convention and beyond.

Chloe Johnson, director of extended learning at SCESD, saw the benefits of this program at her previous job as an elementary school teacher at Scotts Valley Unified School District. 

“I saw the impact on students in their mindset of becoming inventors and young entrepreneurs, and just how that helps them with their academics and understanding the reason why they should be lifelong learners,” Johnson says. 

Payne and 425 students are currently at The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan. Today, students are preparing the projects they will present tomorrow. Those who get selected will participate in a virtual convention that will have teams from across the Americas.

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