All you need is a white flower and a bit of food coloring. White carnations are quite easy to find. Take a glass jar or see-through plastic container and fill it with water. Now for the food coloring. Your kid can get really creative ‘inventing’ new color combinations, or you can stick with one color color. Bright colors will give the best results. Now cut a little bit of stem off the flower and place the flower in the jar or container.

You will find that after about 24 hours the color of the flower has changed. The stem has essentially absorbed the food coloring in the water, and the flowers have magically changed their colors.

If this is for a school inventing project, then your kid should be going for maximum visual impact, as he or she will be awarded marks for this. So sometimes it’s a good idea to create multiple different colored flowers. Start off by placing each flower in its own jar with different colored food coloring. At the presentation (make sure its on the day of the presentation, ideally do this as soon as possible before presenting), put the flowers all in one container or jar of normal uncolored water. Now you’ve got a nice looking presentation, and your kid has just invented a new flower!

It’s time for us to change our way of thinking about this subject. Let’s not wait for something to happen, but make it happen. Even better, let’s get the people who we’re doing this for, our kids, to help us make change. So the idea behind today’s kids invention idea is this: get kids to come up with novel inventions to improve their school. And then find ways to implement these inventions in their school.

Now the key here is simplicity and practicality. The ideas that the kids are going to come up with must be ones that they can themselves implement (maybe with a little help from the elders).

So get the kids to start brainstorming inventions that can improve their school. Perhaps it’s very down to earth stuff, like doors that squeak whenever someone opens the classroom. Maybe it’s more important stuff, like a system to get the litter off the playground. Whatever the size of the idea, it could help improve the school in some way.

Here’s some areas to think about as a starting point for the invention ideas:

The physical school building

We’re talking here about the building itself, and the maintenance and improvement thereof. Ideas here can relate to fixing things, painting walls, making the building look better in some way, etc. There are many, many ideas waiting here to be discovered.

The curriculum

I’m sure the kids will have a field day on this one. There’s certainly dozens aspects of the curriculum that can be improved, within the guidelines of the subject, the school or the local education authority. Maybe there’s a better way to teach how to solve a math problem, or a more fun way to learn Shakespeare. Or a better technique to memorize dates or facts. What’s great about thinking about invention ideas here is that the kids will be learning something for themselves in the process.

Behavior or discipline

This very much depends on the particular school, but there’s a lot of simple ideas here that can come forth from the kids themselves. And if they have their own ideas about improving behavior, they’re more likely to stick to them.

Recreational activities and sports

This should also be a very fun area for kids to think about. Recreational activities and sports give more meaning and wholeness to school activities. New ideas for recreation, outings, or sports will always be appreciated.

Food and health

With kids living on a lot of junk food, there’s ample opportunity here for change.

So the above ideas should be a starting point for the kids to begin their inventive journeys. The next step is actually implementing the ideas. It’s best for the kids to generate quite a few ideas, and the to select some of the best ones for implementation. Sometimes one kid’s invention may require a group effort, or require the abilities of someone else, or even fundraising. So that’s another opportunity to get really creative and resourceful.

Good luck!