Skip to main content
  • Main menu
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
  • Home
  • Try
    • Explore
    • Study
    • About
    • Multimedia
  • DO Try This at Home!
    • Spark!Lab
    • Spark!Lab Network
    • Encouraging Innovative Thinking
  • At-Home Inventors
Tinkercad computer graphic rendering of a stadium with a woolly mammoth on the playing field

Tim Pula, Spark!Lab’s inventor-in-residence, is designing a stadium with a woolly mammoth in it! He found the mammoth in Tinkercad’s collection of objects from other Smithsonian museums. © 2020 Smithsonian; photo by Tim Pula

At-Home Inventors

April 24, 2020 by Nyssa Buning

Lots of inventors worked from home – what will you invent?

Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print

inventors-edison-thomas-with-son-charles-si-87-1662-450-inline-edit.jpg

Thomas Edison with his son Charles experimenting

Thomas Edison experimenting with his son Charles, around 1900. Smithsonian photo #87-1662

Inventors work everywhere, but many get started at home, using things they find around the house to prototype, or model and test, their inventions. What will you invent from home?

Spark!Lab is a hands-on space where you get to be the inventor. Based in the National Museum of American History and in other museums across the country, Spark!Lab has lots of ideas to get you started.

Go digital, and check out Spark!Lab challenges using Tinkercad, a free app for 3D designing. Through Spark!Lab’s activities, you can reinvent a shopping cart, design a stadium, or invent something to help clean plastic out of the ocean. Dreaming of getting outside soon? Dream bigger, and design your own rocket to explore deep space or just check out the local solar system. With digital representations of the things used in the Draper Spark!Lab in the National Museum of American History, you can choose, combine, and resize pieces to make your vision a digital reality. Or choose pieces that others have developed on Tinkercad to innovate—or create your own pieces to make your invention unique!

sparklab-activities-tinkercad-shopping-cart-c-tim-pula-2020-750-inline-edit.jpg

Tinkercad computer screen with shopping cart components in sidebar

Tim Pula, Spark!Lab’s inventor-in-residence, used Tinkercad to reinvent the shopping cart. © 2020 Smithsonian; photo by Tim Pula

Do you like building things more than designing on a computer? With Instructables, you can search your house for materials and build your own musical instrument. Will you build something using strings or wind? How about a new percussion instrument to serenade your family?

sparklab-activities-instructables-make-musical-instrument-750-inline-edit.jpg

Banjo-like instrument made of cardboard, tape, and string

What do you have in your house that could be made into an instrument? What songs will you play, or will you write your own? © 2020 Smithsonian Lemelson Center

Want more creativity in your inventions? Play Now What? online, a game where you have to invent something to solve a problem using limited materials. The catch? Digital spinners make the challenge different every time you play!

As you work on your inventions, ask yourself some questions to help make your invention a success.

sparklab-logo-explore-it-150-inline-edit.gif

Logo with magnifying glass
  • How have other people solved this problem in the past? Use the links in Instructables to find some information about Smithsonian objects that may give you some ideas. Or you can use the Smithsonian Learning Lab to explore millions of Smithsonian objects online and create your own digital collection! Still want to know more? Head to the website of a museum in your area and see if you can email someone who works there to dig deeper!

​


sparklab-logo-try-it-150-inline-edit.gif

Logo with chemistry flask
  • Who will be using your invention? How did you make it different from something that already exists so your invention is unique? How would you design it differently if you had different materials?

 


sparklab-logo-sell-it-150-inline-edit.gif

Logo with book
  • Share your invention! Tell your family or your class what you made, why you used the pieces you did, and who your invention is for. Or share it online! Take a picture of your invention or make a short video explaining your invention, and ask a grown-up to help you post it online. Use #sparklab #WhatWillYouInvent #tinkertogether or email us at sparklab@si.edu to show us your invention, too!

Interested in learning more?

  • The 2020 Spark!Lab Dr. InBae and Mrs. Kyung Joo Yoon Invent It Challenge asks students to create a new invention that helps provide access to healthy food for everyone, everywhere, every day.
  • Check out videos, recorded public programs, and podcasts on the Lemelson Center website.
  • DO Try This at Home is a whole collection of physical and digital invention challenges from Spark!Lab. 
  • Our Spark!Lab National Network sites have challenges for you from around the country.
    • Michigan Science Center in Detroit, Michigan, has a Facebook Spark!Lab challenge.
    • Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts, have been posting Spark!Lab challenges and other great at-home resources.
    • Want to learn more about inventors’ homes? Check out Edison & Ford virtual tour series on the Facebook page for the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida.
    • The Children’s Museum of the Upstate in Greenville, South Carolina, has a Spark!Lab challenge using recyclables.

Now—start inventing!

Tags

  • Kid inventors (Relevance: 14%)
  • Kid-friendly (Relevance: 20%)
  • DIY/Maker Movement (Relevance: 14%)

Related Stories

Now What? game graphic
DO Try This at Home!

Spark!Lab's Now What? Invention Game

Unexpected problems often call for inventive solutions.

A young girl works on the Invent a Skate Park activity
DO Try This at Home!

Spark!Lab Activities

You can explore the history and process of invention through Draper Spark!Lab activities at home, too!

A facilitator works with a young girl on a Spark!Lab invention activity (Michigan Science Center)
Spark!Lab Network

About the Spark!Lab Network

The Spark!Lab Network brings hands-on invention learning to the nation—and beyond.

VIEW 2727 Matching Results

Found 2727 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.2071873854052%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.7473414008067%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 8.4341767510084%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.0803080308031%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.3003300330033%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.5540887422076%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5837917125046%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.3370003667033%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.4103410341034%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.367803447011%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.8503850385039%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.4470113678034%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 3.5203520352035%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.3736707004034%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.977264393106%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.3003300330033%)
❯
Go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History website

About Menu

▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • Explore
    • Blog
    • Invention Stories
    • Places of Invention
    • Beyond Words
  • Study
    • Research Opportunities
    • Archives
    • Lemelson Center Books
    • Lemelson Center Research
    • Symposia & Conferences
  • Try
    • DO Try This at Home!
    • Spark!Lab
    • Spark!Lab Network
    • Encouraging Innovative Thinking
  • About
    • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • News
    • Who We Are
    • FAQ
    • Donate
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • Surprise Me
  • Search
  • Open Drawer
Copyright 2023, Smithsonian Institution, All Rights Reserved
  • DONATE
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print