Black Inventors Workshop inspires central North Carolina children to shape their own future

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- An eager crowd of youngsters and parents filled a room inside the John Chavis Community Center in Raleigh for Saturday's Black Inventors Workshop.

They listened attentively as Madison Phillips, a recreation programs analyst with Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Culture fired up a computer and shared stories about significant inventions by African Americans.

The lesson was greatly appreciated by Monica Hasan, a mother of two boys.

"It would be nice to know there are people who look like them (who came up with ideas) that we use today," said Hasan. "And maybe you could use something that we could be using or humanity could be using hundreds of years from now, too!"

Minutes after the visual presentation of Black inventors, organizers took the group outside for an opportunity to connect fresh air and fun to what they learned so far by playing Red Light Green Light.

"A game to honor Garrett Morgan, the inventor of the stop lights." Phillips said. "He invented the caution signal, or the yellow light!"

Activities and hands on opportunities could encourage interest in STEM studies among the group.

"We're going to give them a prompt to invest something that makes life a little bit easier. They're going to use scraps from The Scrap Exchange out of Durham," said Phillips. "They have ideas, and we can't give them enough credit sometimes!"

Some may be slightly ahead of their time, like young Ethan McCoy's response when asked if he has any ideas that he'd like to invent someday.

"Probably a teleporting machine, that can teleport you away from danger," he said.

But on this Saturday, he and the other youngsters are encouraged to dream big and develop ideas using available materials.