Invented in Middleton Park
By Primary Six
Introduction At the start of Primary 6 our project was Disasters. We looked at natural disasters such as volcanoes, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes and also manmade disasters too. We realised that there were a lot of people in the world who were in danger of experiencing a disaster and these people needed help to live safely.
Allan Burnett Allan Burnett, the author of Invented in Scotland came into our class and spoke to us about inventions and how we could link them to our project. We started to discuss why inventions are made and think about how we could use them to help in the event of a disaster. His work inspired us to make our own inventions.
UNIDRA The class then all decided that we would make a relief agency called UNIDRA (United Nations International Disasters Relief Agency). We came up with the idea for the name by coming up with words related to disasters and putting them together to make our company name.
United Nations International Disaster Relief Agency
Getting Started First we elected the Human Resources Department because we thought it was important for them to be able to decide who was right for each of the other departments. The Human Resources Department chose the Management Department first because they run the company. The people that wanted to be in the Management Team had to go through an interview with the Human Resources team. The applicants were asked questions and the people with the best answers got picked. The Human Resources team organised the other departments using people’s first, second and third choices.
Management
Human Resources & Education
The Communication Department
Here are the other departments The Fundraising Department
The International Relations Department
IdentityCards We made identity cards to show our roles. This is how they looked.
Mission
Logo
Mission & Logo As an organisation we thought it was best to design a logo and come up with a mission statement before starting any work. The management team decided some things that we had to put into the logo (it needed to be green and blue and have 2013 on it). Once everyone had designed their own logo, the management team narrowed it down to 3 logos and then everyone voted for their favourite. We looked at different examples of mission statements and everyone made their own one. The management team read them and picked different sentences to put together.
Problem We worked together to come up with a list of different problems that could happen in a disaster and then we started to work in each of our departments to pick one problem to solve.
Problem & Criteria Each group came up with criteria for how we could solve our problem and describe why each criteria was important. Each department found evidence to prove that the problem has happened in the event of a disaster before. In our groups we discussed ideas on what our invention would be like.
Sketches Using our problem and criteria we did individual sketches on what we thought our invention should look like and then we came together and came up with one group sketch. Our next step was to make instructions on how we thought our inventions would be made.
Allan Burnett Towards the end of our project we showed Allan Burnett our problem, criteria, evidence, sketches, inventions and instructions and he talked to us about how they worked and how we could make them better. He asked us questions about them to make sure we knew what we were doing and gave us some advice.
During The Project During our project we completed homework on inventions. First we made a poster about our favourite invention. Then we had to come up with an invention of our own that would be useful to us. Finally we made a model of either a different invention or the same one.
Favourite Inventions These are a few examples of our favourite inventions!
Our Inventions Here are some inventions of our own.
Models At home we made some models that would help in the event of a disaster.
Our Boards We took Allan’s advice and started to finalise our inventions. Each department started to type up and print our work. We backed it so that it stood out and looked nice and then put it on display boards. The parents got to look at our project work during our school Scottish open morning.
Take a look at our inventions...
Hi Tech Gadget 'If people are effected by a disaster they might not have any school to go to so our invention will help lots of people by keeping them educated.' 'After the people get the machine they click on what primary they are in and once they have done that they click on a subject. There are lots of subjects like maths, PE and reading. The interactive teacher explains the subject and tells them what to do. At the end it goes over the answers.'
Human Resources and Education Department
The Family Finder
'It finds family and friends.'
'The family finder works by connecting to social services and its own network in order to find the location of family or friends.'
Fundraising Department
The Communicat ion Box 'Our invention is a box with buttons and satellites to communicate with emergency services and family and friends.' 'If you are in a situation where you can't communicate with people there is a choice of buttons to Press such as emergency services and family and friends and then it will call whoever you pressed.'
Communication s Department
Home for Homeless 'Our invention is a home for homeless people.' 'If someone loses their home in an invent of a disaster they can come to our shelter for free and they will get a nice bed they will also get food and water and obviously showers and toilets.'
Management Department
The Magic Machine 'Our invention was to help people with no suitable clothes.' 'A person in a disaster would go up to our machine and ask the machine for clothes. The machine would automatically listen to their requests, make the clothes and give them what they needed. It would only take a few minutes.'
The International Relations Department
The End This project helped us to see how you can work with others in your class to come up with an invention that would work and we enjoyed it. It showed us how inventions can start with just a little idea and can go on to help the world. It also showed us that when you make an invention it’s not just about making it, it’s about thinking it out, finding a problem and coming up with criteria to solve it. It can be stressful at times but overall it’s worth it when you have achieved your goal of solving a problem that will help lots of people. It has been a great opportunity to make an invention.
Every department is now finished and this is because of Allan Burnett. Thanks! 'Allan gave 'Thank you us great Allan!' advice and we are now 'We are so finished our glad that Allan project.' Burnett came to help us out.'