|
Among 120,000 K-12 Students Worldwide To Have Competed This Year, 500+ at Finals
 Kyle Hawes and Ryder Walding, 5th Graders from Main Street Elementary School in Soquel, were recently honored for their ingenuity at the 4th Annual Invention Convention U.S. Nationals presented by United Technologies Corp. They were among more than 500 award-winning K-12 inventors from across the nation and around the world who gathered inside Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan on May 30-31 to compete for top awards in youth invention.
For their invention, Windshield Warmer, the students won a Transportation Industry Innovation Award.
“Our invention heats your car windshield above freezing so that ice and snow is unable to accumulate,” they explain. “This will save you time and energy as you will no longer have to scrape ice and snow off your windshield, use harmful chemicals, or let your car run in order to defrost the windshield. We solved the problem by creating a heated sunshield that warms the car windshield above freezing. This prevents ice and snow from forming. We did this by sewing a 12 volt Kevlar heating circuit with an attached USB cable on one side of a car sunshield.”
“For our prototype, we powered the circuit with a rechargeable solar battery pack to mimic a car battery. We attached a timer to the circuit. We tested our prototype using our freezer and two pieces of glass we got from a picture frame. We set one piece of glass in the freezer on the rack and placed the other piece of glass on top of our windshield warmer and left them overnight. In the morning, the glass left on the rack was covered in frost and the glass placed on the windshield warmer was still clear. For our second test, we took the already frosted piece of glass and set it on top of the windshield warmer inside the freezer. After 30 minutes we checked the glass and it had defrosted. Both tests were successful.”
Invention Convention provides students in grades K-12 an interactive and interdisciplinary opportunity to use the invention process to create and pitch an original product at a national convention. More than 120,000 students from across 23 states and representing four countries, competed for a chance to participate in the national event this year.
“At The Henry Ford, we believe inside every child is the potential to change the world,” said Patricia Mooradian, President of The Henry Ford. “The students who participate in the Invention Convention U.S. Nationals completely embody that belief and embrace their abilities to solve real-life problems. Invention and entrepreneurial learning take center stage at this event and these young people are truly inspiring with the forward-thinking, resourcefulness and ingenuity they demonstrate.”
The students earned the opportunity to advance to the invitation-only event by winning their local competition held earlier this year. Invention Convention helps to instill problem-identification, problem-solving, entrepreneurship and creativity skills for life to inspire young people to become innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs over the course of their K-12 careers.
“The Invention Convention inspires and nurtures the next generation of scientists and engineers that will build the future,” said Jason Chua, Executive Director of Advanced Projects at United Technologies. “We need more brilliant young minds like Kyle and Ryder to become the innovators of tomorrow and find solutions to our world’s greatest challenges.”
About The Henry Ford and Invention Convention Worldwide
Through its unique museums, collections and innovation learning expertise, The Henry Ford helps individuals of all kinds to unlock their potential and help shape a better future. The Henry Ford leads the Invention Convention Worldwide community and works to make STEM + Invention + Entrepreneurship (STEMIE) learning accessible to educators and students worldwide. As part of our leadership in invention education, The Henry Ford powers events like Invention Convention U.S. Nationals, curriculum and professional development.
|
