More than 100 junior high students from Elk Island Public Schools showcased their inventions at the foruth annual Invention Convention.
“Which is a program that encourages students to investigate, invent and innovate, developing products and concepts that they think will help solve a problem that exists somewhere out in the world,” said Kevin Stevenson, program manager of the Learning Partnership’s I3 Program.
Students were given nearly a year to come up with an idea and develop a prototype to show off at Friday’s event.
“They’ve been working hard in their classrooms with their teachers to develop some of the excellent products that we see,” said Stevenson.
“There’s a real range of ideas: there’s food products, there’s outdoor products.”
Among the student inventions were an avalanche survival helmet, an environmentally friendly balloon, and what one group of students called “The Four Kernels.”
“Two of our people in our group have braces and always get kernels stuck in our teeth and it hurts, lots,” said student Evan Lusok.
That’s why they developed a bucket to filter the kernels out.
“The kernels fall inside the holes that we made,” Lusok explained.
Another student, Natalie Cholin, came up with a way to prevent getting your hand stuck in a round chip container.
“It’s a plastic plate that sits at the bottom so the chips rise when you pull the handle,” she said.
She called it the chip elevator.
“The energy they bring to these projects and this kind of work is just wonderful to see. They’re passionate about the opportunity to be creative and to bring along an invention that they think will solve something in the world,” said Stevenson.
It’s hoped the process will help students become creative thinkers and develop skills they can use in the future.
