Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors [Paperback]

Susan Casey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2005 | Age Range: 11 and up

Have you ever seen inventors on TV or in the newspaper and thought, "That could be me!" Well, it certainly could—and this book shows you how. Kids Inventing! gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for turning your ideas into realities for fun, competition, and even profit.

From finding an idea and creating a working model to patenting, manufacturing, and selling your invention, you get expert guidance in all the different stages of inventing. You'll see how to keep an inventor's log, present your ideas, and work as part of a team or with a mentor. You'll meet inspiring kids just like you who designed their own award-winning inventions. And you'll see how to prepare for the various state and national invention contests held each year, as well as international competitions and science fairs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Inventions solve problems in daily life, and this nifty book solves the problems of how to go about inventing. From identifying a problem in your work to thinking about how to solve it, the information is broken down into small solvable parts.

So how do you come up with a problem? Hone your observational skills and look around. Stories of inventions developed by young scientists who responded to their own needs or those of their community provide the backbone and wonder of this inspirational book.

Some ideas come through observation, some through research, and some from searching for a use for something. Next, the inventor can turn to journaling or model making or can learn with a mentor. For those really great ideas, the book discusses patenting, designing a trademark, and manufacturing and selling the product. There are many websites, programs, competitions, and camps found in the appendices.

Students can be great inventors because life is newer to them and they take less for granted. Awareness is the first step to discovery. What a wonderful little book for showing children other children as inventors... and they can learn how to become one themselves!

--NSTA Recommends

From the Back Cover

Have you ever seen inventors on TV or in the newspaper and thought, "That could be me!" Well, it certainly could—and this book shows you how. Kids Inventing! gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for turning your ideas into realities for fun, competition, and even profit.

From finding an idea and creating a working model topatenting, manufacturing, and selling your invention, you get expert guidance in all the different stages of inventing. You'll see how to keep an inventor's log, present your ideas, and work as part of a team or with a mentor. You'll meet inspiring kids just like you who designed their own award-winning inventions. And you'll see how to prepare for the various state and national invention contests held each year, as well as international competitions and science fairs.

Discover how exciting it can be to rethink the world around you, solve problems, and surprise and delight others with the results. Anything's possible with Kids Inventing! (Who knows—you might even become famous!)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (August 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471660868
• ISBN-13: 978-0471660866
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.3 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Casey is the author of Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors and Women Invent! Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World. She is also a journalist and her articles and photographs have appeared in Fast Company, Women's Sports, Soap Opera Digest, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle,Inventors Digest, Electrical Contractor and many other publications.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Kids Inventing is Terrific!!!! September 16, 2005

By Thomas L. Ogren

Format:Paperback

I really love Kids Inventing!, THE handbook for young inventors. Written by that expert on invention (also see author Susan Casey's excellent book, Women Invent!), this is a book about inventions by kids, and it's written to be read and used by kids.

Easy to read, full of first-rate practical advice, with lots of good photos and charts, this book will be especially useful not only for all those young inventors out there, but also for their teachers. I'm a teacher myself, and am always on the lookout for books that encourage children to think big, to explore what could be, to use their imagination...and Kids Inventing! is exactly this kind of inspiring book.

The advice on patents and trademarks alone is well worth the price of the book. There is a great deal too, of interesting history throughout. The sections on awards, invention fairs, science fairs, contests, camps...all of these add to the completely practical aspect of Kids Inventing! Author Casey guides the reader step-by-step, always encouraging, always guiding with a sure hand.

Kids Inventing! is sure to be a big hit with the brightest, highest achieving students....but I believe that it will also be of plenty of interest to most kids. This one ought to be in every school library...shot it ought to be in all the classrooms! Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great start for a young inventor January 12, 2009

By Robert C

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My youngest daughter loves to come up with new ideas but has no idea how to implement them or whether she is on the right track. This book has helped her focus her creativity in a more productive manner. She is now more focused and realistic about her ideas whereas before many of her ideas were impossible or just off the wall.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every library needs Kids Inventing! November 26, 2006

By Jack Buchanan

Format:Paperback

This book gives loads of ideas and stories to inspire kids to become inventors. Almost a hundred examples of kids inventing are featured along with advice on each step of the invention process. The author shows that its a fun and a potenially Money Making activity. Kids Inventing! can change a child's life!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok December 21, 2012

By Pauline

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Bought this for my grandson, the cover looks vey colorful and exciting, but the inside even though it has lots of ideas, is vey uninspiring and dull and black and white. A couple of color photos would have gone a long way to improve this book

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows how to take that 1% inspiration and focus it with 99% perspiration June 18, 2012

By C. Wallis Davenport

Format:Paperback

Kids Inventing! really helped my daughter out. She loves the Science Channel, the Discover Channel, and shows that Bust Myths (you know what I'm talking about!) She and I were always discussing how a lot of common day items - everything from brownies and puff pastry, to velcro and silly putty, were "accidents". We also talked about how inventors try to solve problems and often end up with different results than they expected.

Still, until we had Kids Inventing! my daughter didn't really know what to do with her many ideas. This very supportive book showed her where to begin - how to brainstorm for ideas, to keep an idea notebook, to make drawings and prototypes, to ask questions, and rework the design. In short, how to bring an invention to life!

The book is full of real-life examples of other kids who invented things, some very useful, and some just for fun. Some of the children ended up marketing and selling their products, and others decided not to. At the end of Kids Inventing!, there is information on everything from inventors' clubs, to how to get a patent and protect your idea (this alone is a reason to get the book, in my view), an inventor camp, and suggested reading.

As a mom to a future NASA engineer, and inventor of...oh, sorry, I can't reveal that. It hasn't been patented yet! Anyway, I highly recommend this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book December 26, 2012

By Kholt

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My nephew loves this book. He's ten and is an inventor in the making. He's also a very good reader for his age and the book was written in suitable language for a 10-12 year old.