This is an example of what I love about the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I am struck by how whimsical and engaging the synopsis is. And while I can not relate to Lonnie, I can definitely relate to his mother. I have two boys who sound just like Lonnie. They are in constant pursuit of making things, improving them, talking incessantly over the dinner table about the current model, what is working about it and what is not, and options for design modifications. Prior to having children of my own, 'design modification' is the term I would use for an item I had purchased that had the foot note on the box "some assembly required", and when I had done my best to follow the directions and still had a few pieces left over, design modification is what I would call it. Apparently the term has other uses.
One example happened last summer, while my husband and I were enjoying a cheese making trip to the Haute Alps in France. On day three we received an email entitled "Should I Stop This?" from a friend who drove by our house and found a reasonably functional trebuchet on our front lawn. Aimed at the neighbor's yard. Neighbors trying to sell their house, I might add. Fortunately the prospective buyers were not dissuaded by the medieval siege weapon next door, and moved in despite it. My boys continued to tinker with the trebuchet over time, improving it's design and happily fielding all questions asked by interested passers by. One of these young men is interested in biomedical research and the other in biomedical engineering--will they be inventors of something as ingenious as what Lonnie has invented? I hope so.
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