♪ ♪ DANILO: I like inventing stuff because it's fun to make new things.

MIKAELYN: Invention means that something you make, usually to solve a problem.

DANILO: This is NuVu.

It's an innovation school where you can learn design and engineering.

We're in the summer class and we're inventing stuff.

An inventor is like... Leonardo da Vinci.

He was an inventor, but he was known for his paintings.

My name is Danilo and I'm eight years old.

♪ ♪ We're working on environmental robots.

An environmental robot helps the economy and the environment.

Baboosh.

I've got to close these up with glue.

My project is about garbage.

I thought, "Hmm, what's better than helping the world with garbage?"

This is my composter.

So what you do is you put in some food scraps.

Then they go down the slide and the worms will turn that into soil.

It looks like a guitar, but it was a composter, which is actually really weird (making guitar noises) Each person has a different idea, like Mikaelyn's doing squirrel shoes.

MIKAELYN: This is my invention.

I'm working on shoes for squirrels So these are the squirrel shoes I made.

They're for squirrels to walk across the street and not get their feet hot.

DANILO: Mikaelyn used cans for her first prototype.

A prototype is like a rough draft.

I think these might be too big for squirrel feet I'm doing some research to see how big the feet are.

TEACHER: This is 1.75.

MIKAELYN: I learned how big a squirrel's foot was.

We were just making a model to represent the squirrel foot so we knew how big it was.

DANILO: Mikaelyn's next prototype was a better fit for squirrel feet.

I wanted my invention to be more than just a composter, so I changed it into a thing that sorts compost and garbage and recycling using an arm with a claw.

There could be string attaching to the two cardboard pieces so it would go just back and forth.

My coach, Kate, was helping me figure that out.

The movements with her arm were like what the arm would do.

You can very much use your hands as an explanation for literally any robot.

♪ ♪ MIKAELYN: I'm gonna laser cut a cylinder shape.

DANILO: Now Mikaelyn is working on her next prototype.

Grace is showing me how to make the shapes I want.

Instead of cardboard, she's using wood.

The laser cutter uses a high-powered light beam to cut the wood perfectly.

Hey Grace, it's done.

♪ ♪ I put together the pieces I laser cut.

DANILO: Mikaelyn cut the squirrel shoe in half, so it wasn't so high, and then added a velcro strap that has cotton on it so it will be soft for the squirrel's foot.

So the process started with a slide.

Then it turned into a hand.

Then it turned into two fingers.

There's gonna be like a motor here that when it turns it, it's gonna go open.

But when it lets go, it closes up and grabs the thing, the end.

Baboosh.

So why an invention keeps changing is because once you think of one idea, more pop up in your head.

Okay.

We're setting up all our inventions for the big show.

This is a squirrel shoe and you put the squirrel's feet in here.

And then it turns the motor and it tightens.

(applause) It's a garbage sorter.

You give it a piece of trash, it identifies it.

It turns and picks which one it should be like in trash recycling or compost.

(applause) I like being an inventor because inventing things could help the world, and it's fun to use something to doodle with my hands.

One person can change the world, and two, even more.