Northridge : 3rd-Grade Inventors to Display Creations

The singing toothbrush and the snack sax will debut Friday at Balboa Boulevard Magnet School’s “Invention Convention.”

At the convention, 31 third-graders who have been developing inventions since September will exhibit their prototypes, explain the problem each invention solves, and attempt to sell their products to parents and teachers with a commercial.

A winning entry will be selected and sent to the national “Invent America!” contest sponsored by the United States Patent Office.

Among the contenders are a toothbrush that plays children’s songs to encourage youngsters to brush their teeth and a saxophone equipped with a dinner plate attachment for those long, hunger-inducing gigs.

The national contest--open to students in kindergarten through eighth grade--began in 1987 after officials in the Patent Office noticed that domestic applications for patents were waning. The winner in each grade category takes home a $1,000 savings bond, and interviews with late-night television guru David Letterman are not uncommon.

Balboa students have competed in the contest for the last five years, said third-grade teacher Christy Wyatt.

The Balboa students have definitely taken to the project, Wyatt said.

“They’ve become little inventors,” she said. “You give them all sorts of problem-solving situations . . . and they’ve learned that when they grow up and get a job they will have to be creative and inventive in that job.”

She added: “We have a lot of little Thomas Edisons, believe me.”