Website: The New Inventors

Resource Review

www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors

Description

Australian TV programme The New Inventors (based on ABC TV's 1970s programme The Inventors) features inventors who present their outcomes to a judging panel. Some of these episodes are on this website, along with short (90 second) video clips in which individuals discuss why and how they developed their outcomes. The inventors range from seven-year-old Luca, who created a reflective dog-collar, to eighty two-year-old retiree Gino and his ski towing wheel, as well as enthusiastic amateurs and people working in the design industry.

Episodes from the current television series are available to download, and the site contains extra information on technology, IP and marketing.

Curriculum / Qualifications links

This website would be of particular interest to teachers of Technology and Business Studies. The inventors discuss how they met a need or opportunity, and teachers could link aspects of their technological process to the Technology curriculum. The inventor of the horse face veil, for example, had to consider the properties of materials while designing her product.

Content

Viewers can find out about the development of the hotsuit, home-brew sediment extractor, automated wheelie bin, fire-fighting robot, cane toad scoop, wheel skates, pet loo and more. Content on the site includes:

Video clips of inventors talking about their technological process and outcomes. These relate to a range of fields such as agriculture, design, electronics, engineering, environment, fashion, food, music and transport.
A message board with comments on the inventions and related topics, and forums featuring experts answering a range of queries.
The Bright Spark Awards (not the New Zealand electronics competition!) which showcase winning entries from young inventors.
The archived Innovation and Technology News section; this links to technology in the news but has not been updated since October 2009.
Catapult (also archived), an extensive section with many categories (for example, Finance & Business, Food & Drink, Arts & Communication) which include stories about inventions, in-depth articles, Ask an Expert and an online patent quiz.
Resources, which links to advice on developing an idea through to patenting and marketing it.

Ease of use

It can be a little confusing trying to find various parts of the site. The Catapult section, for example, can't be accessed from all the pages so the viewer will need to return to the Inventors Home Page. However, once the site has been explored it is reasonably straightforward.

To view the current clips, click on 'all extra stories'.
To browse, click on 'Inventions' then search by category, date or finalists' names.
To download the season's episodes, click on 'Video Download' (videos from previous seasons are not available to be downloaded). Depending on which format you want click on WMV (Windows Media Viewer) or MP4 – the 98 mb file takes about a minute to download.

The 'Watch on iview' section is not available outside Australia.

Rating

Selena Hinchco (Team Solutions, University of Auckland) says this is a great resource for New Zealand Technology educators and could be used in any classroom, regardless of the students' ages. The video clips could be used as a 'starter' activity or to focus students on a particular aspect of Technology, or students could be directed to particular articles such as information on protecting their intellectual property.

Accessibility

The site is easy to access, with the short clips taking up to five seconds to load.