Carol Pack thinks cats are pretty cute, even though she doesn’t have one. But she needed some expert advice when she wanted to invent a game based on the fuzzy pets.
“We were brainstorming in class and my original idea was cats spitting out gum at a target,” the fourth grader said. “But then people said cats are famous for throwing up hairballs.”
The end result was Catastrophe of Hairballs, which took the Best Game award at the 2023 Young Inventor Challenge Nov. 4 and 5 in Chicago. It was one of three winners from students in the Accelerated Learning Program at Palos East and Palos West elementary schools.
The cats in Pack’s game were made from socks, fluff and tubing. She also used computer software to create cards with sayings such as “Your cat caught a mouse and you get 25 points,” and “Pow, you got hit by a hairball and get 15 points.”
“It’s a game where you have these cute, adorable, cozy slingshot cats and use them like slingshots to get points,” Carol said.
Her mom was into the invention, too.
“Carol wanted to make five … she wanted people to feel like they were collecting cats,” said Maggie Peck, adding that when the Best Game winner was announced, her daughter “was so excited, she was jumping up and down.”
“I think her teacher is amazing to do this,” Maggie Pack said.
Julie McNamara, who teaches the Accelerated Learning students, had fun with the inventions, too.
“This project is STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) education at its best and equips students with real world skills,” McNamara said. “Students are learning through doing, so they enjoy it, too.
“I’m always so impressed that my students take an original idea and see it through to completion.”
She also was impressed by the creativity of the games her students invented.
“Interestingly enough, not one of the games included a traditional game board,” she said. “These out-of-the-box concepts grabbed the attention of the judges.”
McNamara helped the students through the engineering and design process, and guided them in brainstorming sessions, making a rough sketch and writing a product description. They also had to write and film a video to pitch their games to judges in the toy industry as part of the contest.
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The winning students received trophies and are expecting another surprise award in the mail.
Shea Curran won the Most Authentic award for her game Zombie Zania, in which her character Dr. Shea Shelley tries to grow organs to create zombies starting with skeletons and eggs.
“I was looking through my basement and I found the skeleton and Easter eggs and I thought, what if I made a game from it?” Shea said. “Ms. McNamara inspired me and helped me to make the game … she helps us work it out and asks us questions to see if our game is good enough.”
In Makeover, which earned fellow fourth grader Marley McCall the contest’s Best Pitch award, looking silly is part of the fun.
“When I was with my friend, we would always put makeup on each other on the wrong spots and look really funny in the end,” Marley said. “I thought maybe with a few friends, you could play a game based on that.”
Each player takes a base card naming lips, cheeks or nose, spins a wheel with instructions that say to put eyeliner or blush on a specific part of the face that might not be the appropriate spot.
“The object is to have the silliest makeup on your face,” said Marley, who loves to draw and paint.
All the students and parents had high praise for McNamara and the school.
“We really love everything about that place,” said Shelley McCall, Marley’s mom. “Ms. McNamara is off-the-charts special in the way she coaches the kids to think and really feel valid.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.