During the last two weeks in class, we discussed the concept of innovation. How do inventors think of new things? How does one go about developing a new idea? How are new inventions marketed?
The students were very excited about creating their own new inventions and drawing prototypes on paper. I traversed the room, admiring the Flying Mustang, the Recycle Refrigerator, and the Rock Star Robot. One young man was drawing a cannon-like device called the Web-O-Shooter.
“Why is it shooting eggs?” I asked, looking at the picture of the egg splattered in a pan at the edge of the page.
He rolled his eyes dramatically. “Because,” he patiently explained, “webo is Spanish for eggs.” He added another dramatic roll of his eyes for effect.
“Ah!” I nodded. “True, that’s how you pronounce it. But did you know that webo is spelled h-u-e-v-o in
Spanish?”
He looked at the word Web-O-Shooter. He looked back at me. He looked again at the title, mentally calculating how much time and effort he’d already put into the picture of his invention.
“I don’t care.” He decided that changing the title was too much effort. “It will still scramble your eggs for you and shoot them into the pan.”
“Yes, but don’t you think your family will want the word spelled correctly on your title when they see it?” A little guilt can go a long way.
He looked at the title again, carefully weighing the amount of work it would be to correct it against his parent’s reaction if it was wrong. He sighed.
“Oh, alright. I’ll change it.” He cut out the old title, created a new one, and glued it in place.
In the end, the Huevo-Shooter was one of the most popular inventions in the class.
¡Olé!
