CHILDREN were given the ominous task of saving the world at the first Inventor's Club at UTC Swindon.

The Inventors Club held its first evening session in Swindon where kids aged 7 - 14 were asked to think of a way to pick up imaginary rocket fuel to escape a meteor-struck earth and save the human race.

Started by Ben Edmonds, who has worked as a designer for 17 years for numerous companies, including Dyson, wants to pass on his passion and ensure innovation is carried on by the next generation.

Bede Cryer, aged 10, from Brinkworth, worked with his team mate Cameron, also age 10, to make a pair of large tweezers to pour the rocket fuel into the rocket safely without touching it.

"I improved on it by making it longer," he said. "I find it quite exciting, it gives us a lot more freedom to do stuff.

Cameron added: "You get advantages that you wouldn't normally, like using a glue gun. It doesn't have to be tidy, it just has to work."

Louisa Reeve, from Devizes, brought her 9-year-old Tabitha to the club on Wednesday.

"We all love science in our family," she said, "and we we just thought we can't pass up on this opportunity, we wish we had all this stuff when we were little.

"I think you have to encourage anything that they're interested in and give them as many opportunities and there's only so much school can provide. Tabitha loves making things and she's really creative. She wants to be an astronaut."

Ben, who plans to get the Inventors Club nationwide by asking other UTC colleges to sign up, told the Adver: "These kids amazing they've got so many ideas. They're not afraid to experiment. I'm really trying to build into them the whole positive thing that they can do anything."

At this weeks challenge students will be asked to design the cheapest and strongest bridge by bartering and selling different materials.