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CM . . .
. Volume VIII Number 20 . . . . June 6, 2002
excerpt: Inventions surround you. From the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night, you are using inventions. The bed you sleep in and the sheets you fling off when you get up are inventions. So are the cereal you eat for breakfast and the spoon you eat it with. Your toothbrush, your toothpaste, and the sink you spit into. Yes, even the toilet! In fact, you can hardly turn around without bumping into an invention.
Susan Hughes
takes students on a journey through time as she shows the vast number
of ways Canadians have changed the world. The people who occupy the great
northern landmass of North America have always been great inventors and
innovators. From the time the First Peoples walked across land bridges
from Asia to North America until today, they have molded and manipulated
their physical environment, modified their food sources, improved their
means of production, developed new games to make their leisure time more
enjoyable, and sought to enhance their health through medical breakthroughs.
There is no shortage of books on Canadian
inventors and their inventions on library and bookstore shelves. They
all essentially provide the same information. However, what distinguishes
Susan Hughes' effort from many others of the genre is her inclusion
of some young Canadian inventors and innovators in her book. Young readers
quickly discover that great ideas come from people of all ages and educational
backgrounds. You don't have to be a research scientist or a university
professor; you can be a mom, a dad, or a kid because creativity belongs
to all of us.
Joseph-Armand Bombardier was only fifteen
when he came up with his idea for an auto-neige (snow car), which eventually
led to the development of the Ski-Doo. Paul Brown was a nineteen-year-old
high school student when his moment of inspiration came; he developed
a Walkman that operates using a spring mechanism instead of batteries.
Dave Zakutin was also in high school when he developed his prototype
of a speed sensing baseball which is marketed across North America by
the giant Rawling's Sporting Goods Company. Eleven-year-old Rachel Zimmerman
used computer technology to augment a communication device for non-speaking
individuals. Xing Zeng was thirteen when she developed "talking glasses"
for a school science fair. These glasses can tell a visually impaired
person how far they are from objects in their path. Even pre-teen Canadians
have great ideas. After her brother was hurt in a bicycle accident,
eleven-year-old Gina Gallant invented the "smart" bicycle helmet that
tells parents if their child's helmet is not on properly. Five grade
five students developed the Flusher 2000 toilet seat, and twelve-year-old
Tyler Mitchell invented Comfy Crutches after his mom broke her leg.
If Susan Hughes' book convinces one student that not everything has
been invented and inspires them to follow their creative dreams, if
she convinces one teacher to support their students' half-baked improbable
ideas in science or literature, history, or art, she will have done
her job.
Recommended. Ian
Stewart is a teacher with Winnipeg #1 School Division, Winnipeg, MB.
To comment on this
title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal
use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other
reproduction is prohibited without permission.
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