A picture of a shark on the bottom of your surfboard has been found to ward off other sharks, Great Lakes College students learned last week.

“It’s a cartoon sticker that works on the idea that great white sharks hunt alone. If they think they’ve spotted another shark, tests have found they tend to clear the area,” Questacon Smart Moves presenter Emily Lapinski said.

“Sharks only have a small knowledge base of objects, so they’ll think a man in a wetsuit is a seal. In testing they’ve confused a silver fish with a toaster.”

The Smart Moves touring show is bursting at the seams with weird, clever, gross and baffling inventions handpicked to dazzle school kids.

There’s a nightclub powered by dancing people, chameleon clothing and a car fueled by human fat.

“This show is just an hour to spark kids’ interest, and then hopefully they’ll go “I can come up with a great idea, too”,” presenter Sarah Royce said.

Student Joshua Quiring is still waiting for his breakthrough.

“Sometimes I’ve come up with inventions I thought would be cool, but then I thought them through and realised they wouldn’t work,” he said.

Emily Farr’s moments of genius are sometimes lost when she gets distracted.

“The show is really inspiring, and would make people want to invent something. Sometimes I have good ideas, but I forget them.”

Apart from the glory of joining Edison and da Vinci in the pantheon of entrepre-nerds, there’s money to be made with bright, innovative, patented ideas. The yearly Smart Moves Invention Convention plucks 30 high school students from around the nation, and gives them a chance to spruik their designs to companies and funding bodies. Program alumni barely in their teens have won $200,000 grants for their ideas.

Ideas, eh? Like… shoes with wheels! Oh, wait. Never mind.

Despite previous setbacks, Joshua showed flashes of brilliance. Faced with the problem of moving a (toy) possum over a (theoretical) highway using everyday objects, he fashioned a flying fox from a rope and plastic tube. The possum had a rough landing, but went the journey.

“Every time we do that task, someone comes up with something different,” Lapinski said.

“The flying fox was something new.”

Joshua was glad to help, and had rave reviews for the program. “It’s a great show. It should be seen by anyone even slightly interested in science,” he said.

Karly Bourke was still thinking of the anti-shark sticker.

“It’s amazing,” she said.

“It’s just a sticker, but it’s simple and it keeps sharks away.”

“It doesn’t come with a guarantee,” Lapinski added.