• Help your students create inventions.Compass image by Monika 3 Steps Ahead from Fotolia.com
  
  Inventions help elementary students develop creativity and critical thinking skills. By assigning them the task of inventing something new or reinventing a current or ancient invention, teachers encourage students to consider theories and think dynamically. Students must also demonstrate an understanding of key concepts while creating their inventions, helping to cement the information in their minds.
  
  

Recording Devices

• The first recordings were made on wax cylinders attached to victrola machines. As the cylinders turned, people spoke into the victrola speaker and a needle pressed against the wax cylinder jumped along with the sound vibrations. Students can explore this concept by creating their own recordings on similar wax cylinders using a ceramic throwing wheel. One student can hold a skewer against a wax pillar candle while another plays an instrument or gives a speech. Students may also use clay cylinders, wax discs, Styrofoam and paper mache to see which materials record the best.
  
  

Homemade Compasses

• Compasses belong to a group of ancient navigation inventions. Along with the map, compasses helped explorers find their way on both land and sea. Students can easily create their own compasses in the classroom. Each student requires a strong magnet, a small plastic circular dish, a permanent marker, needles and cork. Students write "N", "S", "E", and "W" in the bottom of the dish with the marker to mark the directions. Each student then rubs the needle along the magnet to magnetize it and pushes it through the cork so some needle sticks out of either end. After filling their dishes halfway with water, students set the cork and needle in the dish, turning it until the needle points north. Students can then practice using their compasses outside.
  
  

Communication Devices

• Alexander Graham Bell may have invented the telephone, but people can communicate over long distances without them. Megaphones and tin-can phones may not be as convenient, but they are fun to make. The challenge is for students to create the most effective megaphone or cup-and-string communication device they can. The teacher splits the class in half and assigns one invention to each half. Students should experiment with materials and configuration. For instance, students might try wire and plastic jars in place of regular twine and cups. Megaphone inventors might see whether a straight cone or a flared cone throws sounds further.