There was something called a boom bed. There was a survival fishing rod. There were luminescent revision sheets for the anxiously insomniac exam candidates.
Inventions, new things, new thinking from some young creative minds at Te Puke High School.
'We make things that aren't boring” says junior boffin 14-year-old Daniel Hartley. 'And kids know what kids want.”
The brief for the Year 10s at Te Puke High was clear and simple – ‘Invent a futuristic product to help make life easier, happier or safer.' Or all three.
'And they hooked in straight away, they loved it” says social sciences teacher Patsy Whaea.
Six weeks later the boom bed was born. Apart from the big base sounds pumping from beneath the Sleepyhead – another Kiwi invention – the soundwaves deliver a massage; a loud one.
The glow in the dark revision texts are attached to the bedroom ceiling, so underprepared and sleep deprived students can cram while lying in bed.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. When one student left half his fishing kit at home, it prompted him to invent the survival fishing rod. 'It has a knife, waterproof matches, a torch and other survival equipment as well as spare hooks and the like concealed in the handle,” says Patsy.
If it's the role of the teacher to create conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge, as the famous American educator Seymour Papert prescribed, then Patsy Whaea has nailed it.
'I just noticed things were a bit boring for the kids. I wondered what would interest them, wondered if we could find some things to invent. And they loved the idea.”
Hence the dinosaur.
Aaria Murray (14) and Mariana Tarei (15) personify teenage schoolgirls anywhere – they hate germs. 'We didn't want to drink from the school fountains because we didn't know what we would catch,' says Aaria.
Young minds are applied to the problem, and the dinosaur is reborn. Made from a stretchy, rubbery material, one end of the dinosaur is folded over the tap and the water is sucked through a filter from the other end.
'We have learned any idea is a good idea,” says Mariana. 'And people have told us they would buy one.” But not before rectifying one design flaw.
Because the dinosaur is designed to drink from either end, it can mean extraneous matter trapped on one side of the filter will be back washed into the drinker's mouth.
That was the feedback from Priority One's innovation manager Shane Stewart and Ralf Schllothauer, previously chief technical officer at Comvita, when they visited the school to assess the inventions.
'That gave the girls something to ponder,” says Patsy. 'Good feedback, so thinking caps back on.”
And why would two teenage boys be concerned about getting the supermarket shopping home safely, so things didn't spill out of the plastic bags all over the boot?
'We had a lot of ideas,” explains 14-year-old Daniel Bartley. Like the collapsible box to secure goods and carry them into the house.
'But the box had already been invented – or something very similar.” And people wanted something that stayed in the car.
The retractable cargo net was invented. It's attached to the car behind the backseat and is pulled out over shopping and clipped to secure the load. 'Teachers and adults reckon its brilliant,” says co-developer 15-year-old Nathan Howie. 'Brilliant especially when bottles want to fall out of bags and roll around.”
They're now working on a full-scale prototype.
Could these teenage entrepreneurs break on to the open market and be making money before they even leave school? 'Well, I have shares if they do,” laughs Patsy.
And this from a frustrated inventor herself. 'For several years I have been looking for an umbrella fabric that doesn't drip everywhere when its put in the car or taken inside,” says Patsy.
Several years? Her students had just six weeks to complete their projects.
Patsy still hasn't conquered it, one step forward and two back. But like every successful developer she hasn't given up.