Human-powered motivation at Maker Faire!

Yesterday was the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California--inventors of all types were featured there. (human powered stage at Maker Faire).
One was my son's human powered stage at (Rock The Bike), powered by people sitting on stationary bikes to harness energy to power up the music and lights for the singers and performers on that human-powered stage! Awesome...

So interesting to me was watching little children (age 8? 9? 10?) who clamored to get on those bikes and power them. All day long, one after another, these kids jumped on the bikes and volunteered! They checked out the pedal meter which told the audience if there was enough power at any moment. If there wasn't, they had to pedal faster! Those kids watched that meter like hawks! They wanted to help. They wanted to be useful. They wanted to participate. They created the power. They mattered. They were important. No whining or complaining there. Just young children looking to be useful and having fun doing it (and getting lots of exercise pedaling)...

I often think that in our schools we do way too much for kids and expect them to contribute way too little. People want to be useful and to be needed. So do little people. We should learn from the pedal powered stage at Maker Faire!