Young inventors gather at UNL camp
BYLINE: By MARGARET REIST, Lincoln Journal Star
DATELINE: LINCOLN Neb.
Katie Sedlar recently spent a week hatching her remote control bird, a white fluffy creature the young inventor pictures dipping and fluttering and soaring until its batteries give out.
Its beak will move. So will its wings and its legs. And someday, when this plan comes to fruition, consumers can choose from hawks and falcons, eagles and parrots.
Why birds?
"Well, I like cats more, but they can't really fly," she said.
Actually, it all started during a visit to HobbyTown USA, where the soon-to-be fifth-grader was eyeing the remote control planes and cars. Then her mind started working.
From planes to cars to fast cars with parachutes. And on to birds.
So the fluffy white prototype was born and, on a hot Friday afternoon, came to roost on the second floor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Business Administration.
It was in good company. Because this was a toy fair.
Nearby was the Ultimate Robot and a model of Memorial Stadium (a limited edition). There was the Super Sweep and the Space Car and more, all of which came from the imaginations of children who spent the week honing their creative skills in a camp sponsored by the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship.
The goal of the "Kids Invent Toys" camp is to encourage that natural entrepreneurial spirit in children so they'll continue using it as adults.
"Children are very creative," said Cynthia Milligan, dean of UNL's College of Business Administration as she meandered through the toy fair. "As they move on through life they lose some of that ability to want to work creatively. The goal (of the camp) is to preserve that creative spirit."
The week-long camp is not just about innovation, though that's the heart of it. Kids also learn about market research, about making business plans and getting patents. They talk about Web design and advertising.
Twelve-year-old Kody Coggin took electronic parts of different toys and created the Ultimate Robot.
At the toy fair, onlookers could see the cursor blinking on the gray screen of the robot. But just wait.
Eventually it will play music, act as a PDA, be a flatscreen TV and offer you access to the Internet.
"It's basically like an iPod plus an X-Box and a Playstation," Kody said.
Oh yeah, and it will have a remote control so it can follow you around. Even to class.
"This is going to be the new, future technology," he said.
Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com