August is National Inventors’ Month and to celebrate LEGO is holding an essay contest for kids called the LEGO CLICK Awards. This is a chance to share your big and inventive ideas with the whole country (and have a chance at winning one of five $5,000 savings bonds), so put your thinking caps on!
LEGO wants kids all over the country to know that it doesn’t take a genius to be innovative and inventive. In fact, most inventions happen as a sort of accident while doing something else, but when they do happen they can become big ideas.
Take Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, Abner Doubleday’s baseball or even one of the world’s favorite toys – LEGO bricks – for example. All of these were thought up by regular people just like you, who decided to do something big with their dreams.
The Contest
The 2009 LEGO CLICK Awards starts August 1, ends November 2 and is open to kids 6-13 years old. This is your opportunity to share your big idea, as well as a chance to be one of five winners to receive a $5,000 savings bond.
The essay question to be answered by November 2 is: "If you could invent anything, what would it be? Describe how to use it. How did you get the idea? Why are you excited about it?"
For more contest rules and registration, visit www.LEGOCLICKAwards.com.
National Inventors’ Month: Invention Fun Facts
- Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. President to hold a patent.
- A carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen started the LEGO Group during Denmark’s economic depression – he switched from building houses and furniture to making toys because he believed that while parents would make due without new furniture, they would not forgo creative play opportunities for their children. His first toy was a wooden duck. The word “LEGO” is formed from the Danish words “leg godt,” which means “play well.”
- Frank Epperson was just 11 years old in 1905 when he invented the Popsicle – by accident! One night, he left a stir stick in a mixture of powdered soda and water out in the porch. When Epperson woke the next morning, he discovered the drink had frozen to the stir stick, creating a fruit-flavored “icicle,” a treat he originally called the Epsicle.
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