The saying goes that you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Students at Camp Invention, going on this week at the Colquitt County Gifted Center, say you can’t make a pinball machine without breaking a VCR, a computer and maybe a hair dryer.

Thirty-one students — from rising first graders to rising sixth graders — are participating in the camp, which is also modifying motorized model cars and studying advances in bionic senses.

“We were looking for a way to teach children to take an idea and turn it into something,” said GEAR Director Donna Marshall, who’s in charge of the camp. “Everything is hands-on. Students are taught about patents. They’ve been taught to design and create.”

The camp lasts from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day this week. It’s divided into four classes, each with an emphasis on creativity and fun.

For instance, Beth Miller is in charge of the older students — grades 4-6 — which are building “Pinbug Machines.” The machines have bumpers, flippers and other parts like a traditional pinball machine, but the students designed them based on study of the way bugs’ legs work. The basic frame is a cut-out cardboard box, but the pieces inside come from wherever the students can find them.

“They are thoroughly enjoying smashing, crashing and redesigning,” said Miller as two students worked to disassemble what appeared to be a printer cartridge to get the gears to use in their Pinbug Machine.

Miller, who teaches choir at C.A. Gray Junior High during the school year, said the teachers can offer advice but the ideas must all come from the students, and they had lots of them. One team included insect-shaped obstacles in the design of their machine, in keeping with the bug theme.

A few doors down, Cox Elementary School’s Misty Nemeth was helping the younger students set up a track for motorized cars. The basic cars were built from a kit, she said, but then the students had to modify them in accordance with a list of rules, including “Be designed to morph for under water and sky navigation.” Could they really swim or fly? Those traits were not on display Thursday.

What was on display, though, was a lot of fun learning. The first student set her car on the track, turned it on and watched it hit the incline of a “bridge” (actually a strip of cardboard taped to a stack of shoeboxes). The incline deflected the car off the track to the right and she ran to catch it.

“What do we need to do?” Nemeth asked, and the ideas poured in, including lower the bridge by removing shoeboxes and put up a wall to keep the car on the track.

The camp is sponsored by the Inventors Hall of Fame, which designed the curriculum, Director Marshall said. It’s based on STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, areas that are getting a stronger push than ever in modern education.

Although the hall started the camp in 1990, this is the first year Colquitt County Schools have hosted it, she said. It was open to all students in the county and was publicized through the elementary schools.

“We have 31 students this year,” Marshall said. “My goal is to have 100 kids next year. We’ll see.”