Corte Madera designer helps fourth-graders invent new products
By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
Marin Independent Journal
Ken Tarlow demonstrates a new style of coat hanger to fourth graders on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at...
KEN TARLOW has invented products since he was a young boy, selling homemade toys to classmates as a 7-year-old and appearing in a Newsday article after he designed a walking, talking robot at 14.
For the past 15 years, the 63-year-old Corte Madera resident — who runs product development company Tarlow Design — has brought his love of tinkering, creative thinking and gadgets to fourth-grade students at Neil Cummins Elementary School via his annual "Invention Convention." This year the entire fourth-grade class is participating for the first time, with approximately 150 students coming up with their own inventions to be unveiled next Tuesday afternoon.
"When my daughter was in fourth grade, her teacher Michael Arrow found out what I did and he said, 'Let's do a convention thing with the kids,'" Tarlow said. "It started out just his class and slowly but surely the entire fourth grade.
"It's a great age because they're around 10 so they're old enough to think about things," he said. "They have some motor skills so they can sort of put things together, but they're also young enough that they're wide open so they just go for it."
Tarlow meets with students four times before the convention, teaching them about what kinds of products might make good inventions, how to find out if anyone else has come up with a similar idea, the basics of market research — and, finally, how to create a prototype or design drawing.
On Tuesday morning Tarlow spent nearly three hours speaking with students about their prototypes and fielding questions about plastic, glue and general design principles. Tarlow showed children various inventions he'd designed for clients at his company, including a plastic face-protector that attaches to a baseball cap for outdoor work, a DVD player with a sun visor that hooks onto a stroller and a plastic strip that can determine whether a coin's made of real gold.
"That's cool!" 10-year-old Parke Moorhead exclaimed as Tarlow demonstrated how a plastic ring with a remote control device inside could mute a television set.
Avery Briggs, 9, had already built his invention, "The Magnetic Road System," an elaborate model of an intersection with miniature trees, buildings and cars. The vehicles had magnets on both ends, so they would repel each other and avoid crashing. Avery had attached magnets with the opposite charge to police cars so they could tow other vehicles.
"I looked on the news and there was a car crash, and I said, 'What if I find a way to stop the car crash?'" Avery said. "I used the magnets and attached them to cars so they repel."
Other inventions included a grill that children can bring to school in their lunch boxes to heat up pizza and other hot treats, a garden tool that combines a rake and weed hacker and a spatula that flips burgers on its own and even has a drink holder built in.
Madeleine Remy, 10, said she was working on a sleeping mask with lavender inside and attached ear muffs that play restful sounds. "Most people have trouble sleeping, and this is to help them sleep," she said.
Meanwhile, 10-year-old Sydney Segal said her grandmother wants to use the page turner she's designing because of her arthritis. "My brother said he would use it if he's eating," she added.
Past students have designed a fork with a special tube that, when tilted upward, funneled unwanted food to the family dog under the table, as well as a partition that kept one boy's brother from pestering him in the back of the car, Tarlow said. The project "gives them a chance to be creative, to build something that's useful, and it means something to them," said Arrow, the fourth-grade teacher who has been working with Tarlow for 15 years.
"Kids who may not be so good at academics ... this gives them a great opportunity to succeed in something cool and come up with some awesome ideas."
By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
Marin Independent Journal
Ken Tarlow demonstrates a new style of coat hanger to fourth graders on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at...
KEN TARLOW has invented products since he was a young boy, selling homemade toys to classmates as a 7-year-old and appearing in a Newsday article after he designed a walking, talking robot at 14.
For the past 15 years, the 63-year-old Corte Madera resident — who runs product development company Tarlow Design — has brought his love of tinkering, creative thinking and gadgets to fourth-grade students at Neil Cummins Elementary School via his annual "Invention Convention." This year the entire fourth-grade class is participating for the first time, with approximately 150 students coming up with their own inventions to be unveiled next Tuesday afternoon.
"When my daughter was in fourth grade, her teacher Michael Arrow found out what I did and he said, 'Let's do a convention thing with the kids,'" Tarlow said. "It started out just his class and slowly but surely the entire fourth grade.
"It's a great age because they're around 10 so they're old enough to think about things," he said. "They have some motor skills so they can sort of put things together, but they're also young enough that they're wide open so they just go for it."
Tarlow meets with students four times before the convention, teaching them about what kinds of products might make good inventions, how to find out if anyone else has come up with a similar idea, the basics of market research — and, finally, how to create a prototype or design drawing.
On Tuesday morning Tarlow spent nearly three hours speaking with students about their prototypes and fielding questions about plastic, glue and general design principles. Tarlow showed children various inventions he'd designed for clients at his company, including a plastic face-protector that attaches to a baseball cap for outdoor work, a DVD player with a sun visor that hooks onto a stroller and a plastic strip that can determine whether a coin's made of real gold.
"That's cool!" 10-year-old Parke Moorhead exclaimed as Tarlow demonstrated how a plastic ring with a remote control device inside could mute a television set.
Avery Briggs, 9, had already built his invention, "The Magnetic Road System," an elaborate model of an intersection with miniature trees, buildings and cars. The vehicles had magnets on both ends, so they would repel each other and avoid crashing. Avery had attached magnets with the opposite charge to police cars so they could tow other vehicles.
"I looked on the news and there was a car crash, and I said, 'What if I find a way to stop the car crash?'" Avery said. "I used the magnets and attached them to cars so they repel."
Other inventions included a grill that children can bring to school in their lunch boxes to heat up pizza and other hot treats, a garden tool that combines a rake and weed hacker and a spatula that flips burgers on its own and even has a drink holder built in.
Madeleine Remy, 10, said she was working on a sleeping mask with lavender inside and attached ear muffs that play restful sounds. "Most people have trouble sleeping, and this is to help them sleep," she said.
Meanwhile, 10-year-old Sydney Segal said her grandmother wants to use the page turner she's designing because of her arthritis. "My brother said he would use it if he's eating," she added.
Past students have designed a fork with a special tube that, when tilted upward, funneled unwanted food to the family dog under the table, as well as a partition that kept one boy's brother from pestering him in the back of the car, Tarlow said. The project "gives them a chance to be creative, to build something that's useful, and it means something to them," said Arrow, the fourth-grade teacher who has been working with Tarlow for 15 years.
"Kids who may not be so good at academics ... this gives them a great opportunity to succeed in something cool and come up with some awesome ideas."
