During the 16th annual ExploraVision awards, students from grades kindergarten through twelfth grade had the opportunity to show their talent, make their dreams come true, and win some cash.
The students at the National Press Club are all inventors.
The students bring their ideas and inventions for the judges to examine. Through judging, the judges are looking for ideas that can be used in the future and possibly created within the next twenty years.
Among some of the ideas presented were a football game for blind players, a spray that would make healthy foods taste better, and a plan for new bioplastics.
Winners are selected in different groups by age. There was a winner for kindergarten through third grade, fourth through sixth, seventh through ninth, and tenth through twelfth.
The first winning category went to the second grades students from Mediapolis who invented a football game that the blind can play through vibrations and noises.
One eleven year old boy worked for three months on a spray that when sprayed on the tongue would alter your taste buds.
Several high school students from North Carolina worked together to create a new way of creating bioplastics. They will continue to work on improving their idea this summer in the lab.
All of the first place winners received a $10,000 savings bond while second place winners got a $5,000 savings bond. They all also received laptops and a DVD player for their schools.
I think that it is wonderful that scientists and other professionals are giving students the attention and initiative to take an active role in their life and their world through inventions. One can never tell what wonderful idea might be brought to the table by one of these student inventors.