Graland Country Day School

“Tinker, Create, Innovate”

That simple motto starts a year of discovery for the Gates Invention and Innovation Program.

Through the program, motivated students in grades 5-8 students have the opportunity to invent a new product and possibly earn a U.S. patent. Funded from an endowment created by Charles C. Gates ‘34, the program has been a source of pride for Graland for more than a decade. For more about the program’s history, click here.

The yearlong program culminates in March at the Gates Expo, where students display and demonstrate their unique inventions.

The process begins early in the school year when interested students apply to enter the competition. During the program, they must identify a specific problem, research current products that address it and devise a functioning innovation or invention to solve it. Each invention must be built into a working model that is portable, self-contained and operates independently.

Students may work individually or in pairs, and are 100 percent responsible for the outcome; no parental involvement is allowed. Material costs are funded by the endowment. Cash prizes are awarded to top winners, and each competitor receives a small cash award for participating.

Students find the process includes a lot of trial and error, according to Mitch Masters, history teacher and Gates coach. There are seven faculty or staff coaches who act as resources and assist with budgeting.

To document their progress, students maintain Inventors' Logs to journal, photograph and videotape the invention lifecycle. Four judges, selected for their objectivity and status in the academic, business or engineering communities, review the logs in preparation for the competition.

At the expo, students display their hard work for the Graland community. They are prepared with a short description of their inventions and answer questions about the process. By the end, 10-15 finalists are chosen to make a separate presentation to the judges, who evaluate inventions on certain criteria such as functionality, creativity, marketability and clarity of communication.

Extraordinary ideas may receive a “patent nod” from the judges. Those projects receive additional funding for more in-depth research and design. If appropriate, Graland will hire a patent attorney to see the process through.

Recently, two former students were awarded patents for their Gates invention: Nathaniel Newman ’09 and Derek Lewis ’09 created a tube-shaped neoprene sleeve for frozen edibles such as Otter Pops. Four more have applied for the distinction and are awaiting approval.