science kits for a budding inventor?

[texasmama]

My 10 year old son loves inventing things. He is currently going all McGyver and working on a design for a lock based on our garage freezer using an empty butter tub, some thin bamboo, tape, a paper clip, a rubber band and a carabiner clip. Please help me with resources to aid him in scratching his inventing itch. He really needs more materials kits with ideas than a "how to" list of instructions, if that makes sense.

[Arcadia]

I won't buy a kit for an inventor. I'll get an area or a bin to put all kinds of scrap materials and let him have a go at it.

I'll let him check out PBSkids Design Squad website for ideas. Kids can submit their inventions there. There are contests too.

http://pbskids.org/designsquad/

Get him a sketchpad to draw or write his ideas down as he brainstorm his prototypes. He can create his own inventions portfolio for fun.

[fiberdrunk]

My son is this way, too. I give him broken DVD players (or whatever broken appliance we have) and a screwdriver and just let him have at it. He really likes taking it all apart and seeing how it works. Now if I can just get him to build constructively.

[Aspasia]

How about a simple machines kit? http://www.brightkidsworld.com/Thames_Kosmos_Physics_Simple_Machines_Science_Kit_p/tha163.htm

 

If he knows how to build those, that should put him in a good place to build lots of his own designs.

[texasmama]

Thanks so much for the ideas and feedback. Ironically, I handed my son my toolkit and a broken walkie talkie about an hour ago, before reading this thread. I will have him look at the website mentioned and will be looking at the simple machines kit. He is fascinated by the idea of creating things. I mentioned robotics to him, and he said he was not interested. He just wants to mess around with things on his own. I plan to ask people we know for broken appliances and such for him to take apart or to scour the Goodwill for some cheap, old things. This is a pursuit I want to encourage, for certain.