By middle school, our kitchen looked like a small electronics workshop.
Discarded computer towers appeared beside the refrigerator.
Wires filled coffee cans.
Broken printers became sources of motors, gears, and useful screws.
I learned the difference between a resistor and a capacitor because my sons refused to explain their projects without using proper terminology.
Their first serious invention was a sensor that detected changes in air quality.
They built it after one of Owen's classmates was hospitalized during a severe asthma attack.
The device was ugly.
Its wires were exposed, and the plastic housing came from an old lunchbox.
But it worked.
Their science teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, nearly cried when they demonstrated it.
“You boys understand something many engineers forget,” she told them. “A good invention solves a real problem.”
By fifteen, they had designed a more sophisticated system.
It combined inexpensive environmental sensors, predictive algorithms, and a warning interface that could operate on older phones.
