Inventor plants seeds of creativity in pupils
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — The pupils in Sharon Hennessy’s fourth-grade class at the Freehold Learning Center, Dutch Lane Road, did something amazing in November — they became inventors.

Hennessy teaches an enrichment program at the school, and as part of her invention unit lesson, she invited a real inventor to speak to her would-be inventors.

Inventor Lisa Williams Ascolese arrived at the school on Nov. 23 carting a suitcase that contained the tools she would use to plumb the young minds and encourage the children to think and to access their own unique creativity.

Ascolese, a resident of Howell, has created products that are sold on television and in stores. She operates a consultation business, Inventive Minds, Freehold, through which she helps inventors learn the process that can lead to their product being marketed. Ascolese also speaks to students of all ages during presentations in schools.

Ascolese told the pupils she would teach them the steps involved in the invention process from beginning to end and told them they would all make their own invention by the end of the program. She said she could not teach them to invent, but would teach them what she had learned on her own invention journey.

She gave them a brief overview of the steps involved in the invention process.

“First you need to come up with an idea for something that will make life better for people. Next, you write it all down and take out the kinks. Then you need to decide on what materials you will use and the cost of those materials,” she said. She then explained step four, which is to make a prototype of the product. She told the children they had to research the market to make sure the product did not already exist.

“Even if it does exist,” she said, “you can always invent something to improve it.” The next step would be to find a manufacturer to produce the invention.

“Naming your product is the last step,” Ascolese said. “It should be catchy.” The product name should “shout out what it is so that people will remember it.”

With that, the children made their way up to the counter to select invention materials from among the many items Ascolese brought with her. They sifted through large and small scraps of fabric, colored foam boards, wooden and foam cut-outs and tiny chalk boards. They pondered over what color pipe cleaners to use or which of the loads of colorful buttons they would choose for their invention prototype. With their ideas at hand and their scissors poised, they began.

Ascolese gave the youngsters several ideas to start with, such as a place mat for a desk that would contain a place for papers, pens, a phone and pictures. All of the students, to Ascolese’s surprise, already had their own ideas.

Jamie Bresnahan decided her dog needed a place to keep his toys. With foam board as a base, she stapled squares of fabric to act as pockets for items like toys and biscuits. She fashioned pipe cleaners to fabric for a place to put hanging toys. The center held a plastic square to insert her pet’s picture.

Darnesha Moore said she gets hand cramps when she writes. Her invention was a cushion for her hand with a place to insert a pen. She began by cutting up foam board to shape her invention and then wrapped several layers of fabric around the form.

Sarah Cruz likes to take things with her on car trips. She worked on inventing an organizer to hold all of her personal items. Based on foam board, the youngster glued and stapled bits and squares of fabric to make pockets for her toys, pencils and books.

The children worked on their prototypes as Ascolese stressed that these were models or samples on a much smaller scale than the real product would be.

Hennessy said she thought the program was a success.

“They are so focused on their work and they came up with their own idea,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Prior to the visit from Ascolese, the pupils discussed great inventors, odd inventions and mistakes that worked. The children have also worked on creating a new cereal product.