The Big Thinker Award is in honor of Jerry Spivak who was a research scientist with Bell Laboratories and AT&T and supporter of the California Invention Convention from its inception. This year the Big Thinker award is awarded to the team of Cienna Lawrence and Kaliyah Sweeney, 6th Graders from Lawrence E. Jones Middle School in Rohnert Park, for their invention Butter Glidr. We are trying to make spreading butter easier because for some people spreading butter is hard and messy with a knife. Our invention allows you to spread butter on your toast for the perfect amount of butter – more easily and cleaner.
The King Family Youth Innovators Award goes to the team of Chloe Jones and Rylee Parra, 6th Graders from Bradley Elementary School in Corralitos, for their invention The Tee Saver. The Tee Saver helps prevent the ball from rolling away during batting practice and having to pick it up over and over again. It is also designed to hold the tee upright if it is hit by a bat and starts to tip over.
The Griffith – Marlin Award for Teamwork goes to the team of Jesus Lustre and Oliver Vasquez, 6th Graders from Sherwood Elementary School in Salinas. Their invention is the Bird Catcher 3000. We catch birds in our cage and we want to be able to decide to release them or keep them captured right away. This invention uses gravity as well as a sound sensor that alerts people when it catches a bird.
