Wizard of recycling lures kids to science

At the Mama Tierra workshop in Mexico City, a kid's wistful 'I want a remote-control boat' is a plan, not a dream.

By Kimberly N. Chase | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 14, 2007 edition

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MEXICO CITY - As a child, Carlos Macias made a hobby out of inventing his own toys. A self-described bookworm, he quickly exhausted the family supply of books and became something of a young scientist.

"I preferred [inventing] to playing or swimming," he says of a childhood full of the explosions, splatters, and sparks of invention.

On one family outing to a city park, the young boy decided that he wanted to catch bugs in a murky pond. After finding a stick, a piece of string, and a plastic bag, he made his own fishing rod. Seeing him using the new invention, some other children came over and asked to buy it. When the young inventor offered instead to show them how to make it, they insisted he sell it to them, but, Macias refused, saying they should make it themselves.

While his ethic hasn't made him rich, it has made him a minor celebrity among kids who consider him a modern-day wizard.

Mama Tierra, the science workshop he founded in 1992, helps make dreams come true. The wistful "I want to make a remote-control boat with passengers and a moving radar detector" becomes a plan, not a wish.

His mission is twofold: To introduce kids of all ages to recycling and environmental technologies like solar energy and to teach them to experience creativity firsthand, to reach for solutions rather than expect easy answers.

If a child can describe it, Macias usually can help bring an idea to reality from his cluttered jumble of cables, tools, and dusty model boats and spaceships. He'll discuss an idea with a child until they come up with a plan for construction.

One little girl who wants to make a mechanical caterpillar is given egg containers to get started, and Macias checks in periodically on her progress.

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