The spirit of scientific discovery is alive and well at the Inventor's Club in Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture. Here, boys and girls have been building their own original inventions since some companies linked to Toyota Motor Corporation started the club 27 years ago.

The club has over 1,700 members, which makes it the largest inventor's club in the nation. The kids invent all sorts of things in the club during the year, like sixth-grade Yuna Kume's memo holder. It's a unique invention which uses a combination of magnets to hold memo papers. Past inventions have also included a baseball batting-practice platform and a watering device that senses when the soil around a plant is dry and automatically waters it. Usually the kids concentrate on making their own things, but in December they make kites together as part of a special project.

Flying kites is a traditional winter pastime in Japan, and the kids make three kinds of kites to fly: a diamond-shaped one, a floppy one, and a spinning one. The first two kites are pretty common, but the third one is almost exclusively used in the Kariya area. That's because the members of the club invented the spinning kite themselves.

The kids meet on several weekends every December to make the kites. Those who made the kites on Sunday, December 2 had run to make them fly because there was no wind. Asked if she was disappointed there wasn't enough wind, third grade Mami Nakayoshi said, "I'm not disappointed at all. It was a lot of fun making kites with everybody." Fortunately, Mami will get a chance to fly her kite again when all of the kids get together in January for a big kite-flying festival.

Members make lots of things besides kites, but first they have to learn some basic science. Local kids can enter the club in second grade, when they come and learn how to build simple things together out of paper or wood. When they reach fourth grade, they can become full members. This means they can design and build anything they like.

To build something, though, the kids need a plan. First, they draw a picture of what they want. Then, they have to figure out what materials are necessary. Finally, they can build their invention. Of course, teachers and staff are there to give them advice, but the inventions are created and built entirely by the kids themselves.

These young inventors are getting a chance to build their dreams, and when they enter contests, their inventions earn them prizes, too. Maybe some of the kids in the club will grow up to become great scientists in the future.

Photos: (Top) One of the kids works on an invention (Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun); (Second) Tsuyoshi, a club member, flies a kite; (Third) Megumi shows off a kite she made; (Bottom) Rika builds one of her inventions.