Invention Convention: Catholic school students cook up innovation at STEM event
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Brianne Culp and Sophia Rodriguez demonstrate The Bully Stopper app, which the St. Louise de Marillac students say would prevent online bullying. Both fourth-graders have witnessed bullying and wanted to help others with their invention.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Molly Ucman displays her Cleanie Beanie, a cozy sleeper that turns babies and toddlers into cleaning machines. Ucman, of Finleyville, said her invention was inspired by her younger brothers.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
When Lily Silvas, left, broke her arm, she was itchy and uncomfortable in the traditional cotton cast her doctor put on. She and best friend Ellie LoCastro enjoyed the challenge of creating a silkier, less itchy cast.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fiona O’Neill and Faith Simon, sixth-graders at Ave Maria Academy’s Bethel Park campus, demonstrate the Leaf Thief. Their remote-controlled leaf vacuum removes leaves from one’s yard, chops them to bits and spits out the small parts, to be thrown away or used for composting.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Henry Popovich, of Upper Saint Clair, and Nicholas Lucadama, of Peters Township, present The Personal Renewable Charger, a ring that charges electronic devices while you use them. The St. Louise de Marillac fifth-graders said they enjoyed working together on the invention.
A roaring sea of students standing proudly in front of decorative trifolds and clever inventions filled Seton LaSalle High School’s gymnasium April 1 during the third-annual Invention Convention, a STEM event open to fourth- through sixth-graders at nine area Catholic elementary schools.
“These kids have so much imagination and creativity,” said Katie Jackson, a high school math teacher and first-time Invention Convention judge. “There’s so much up there that I wish we could tap into a little bit more, and this is the perfect outlet for that.”
Jackson and 19 other judges and parents marveled at the creative solutions to a variety of STEM-based problems, including inventions so ingenious one wonders how they’re not already on the market.
“The inventions they create are actual really good ideas,” said Michael Gianoutsos, director of innovation and technology at Seton LaSalle.
Holly Herbertson, an English teacher at the school, said her favorite presentations were those given by animated students who believed wholeheartedly in their project. Jackson was taken by inventions that were meaningful to the student or group – including an ice cream thermos that keeps the summer treat from melting on the go.
“They wanted ice cream all the time,” Jackson laughed. “That’s so cute.”
Some inventions were quirky, others fashion-forward. Kate Hartman, of Bethel Park, and Angelina Petraglia, of Peters Township, invented the Comfy Heater, a sweater whose pockets double as a hand warmer.
Like the St. Louise de Marillac fifth-graders, Molly Ucman had practical fashion on the brain when she invented the Cleanie Beanie, a chic sleeper that sports colorful sponges.
“I have two younger brothers and they’re, like, really messy,” said Ucman, of Finleyville, who attends Madonna Catholic Regional School. “I wanted to invent something that a baby can just clean without noticing.”
Ucman said parents would add soap and water to the sponges, which are fixed to the elbows, knees and belly of each onesie.
“The baby can crawl around and clean,” Ucman said.
Ave Maria Academy fifth-graders Fiona O’Neill and Faith Simon had a different kind of cleaning in mind when they created the Leaf Thief, a remote-controlled device that takes the manual labor out of leaf removal.
“My grandpa and grandma live on a really big property and they always have a ton of leaves,” said O’Neill. “My grandpa has to go out and rake the leaves on his giant property, and it’s really hard for him to do.”
So O’Neill and Simon invented the Leaf Thief, which, said Simon, can clear leaves from the comfort of one’s couch or at work.
“Our invention was made to help people who can’t manually rake or blow leaves. It can be very hard to take good care of your lawn,” O’Neill said.
It can also be difficult for those with physical limitations to erase pencil marks from paper – which is why Billy Yohe, of Donora, invented the Electro-Eraser.
The Madonna Catholic fourth-grader attached a colorful eraser to the end of a battery-powered drill bit. When he needs to erase, he simply turns the Electro-Eraser on and guides the whirring machinery over paper.
“I have to erase a lot in math,” shrugged Yohe, as he demonstrated his invention.
Herbertson pointed out that while technology plays a large role in the lives of students, kids do live beyond their screens.
“People talk about kids and tech. A lot of them were really outside the realm of that,” said Herbertson. “It wasn’t just phones and iPads and tablets and stuff today.”
While many inventions did center around quality of life improvements, including a desk organizer and a pet anxiety soother – there certainly were some fantastic tech-based inventions on display at the convention.
St. Louise de Marillac fifth-graders Henry Popovich and Nicholas Lucadamo, of Upper St. Clair and Peters Township, respectively, created a prototype for a personal renewable charger.
“The personal renewable charger is an easy-to-use, small, portable device that can help charge your computer at a moment’s notice,” said Lucadamo, who got the idea when he noticed peers crowding in the back of the room to charge their Chromebooks during class or tests.
He and Popovich researched the potential of body heat to charge electronic devices. After scrapping several ideas – including a node connected to a wire, which had the potential to shock users – the students determined that a wearable ring that charges while you type was the best way to charge a laptop while using it.
“It should charge a little bit faster than a regular (charger),” said Popovich.
Brianne Culp and Sophia Rodriguez, fourth-graders at St. Louise de Marillac who both live in Peters Township, also presented a tech-based invention.
“Imagine someone says something mean, or bullies you online. The Bully Stopper will respond with something nice,” said Rodriguez, adding that the girls’ Bully Stopper App would be available through both the Apple App and Google Play stores.
Culp and Rodriguez envision a program that can be used through text messaging, social media and gaming apps to stop online bullying.
“We’ve seen people get bullied before online. We said we need to make this so it would help them,” said Culp. “We know we can help people.”
Lily Silvis and Ellie LoCastro are also helping. The Ave Maria Academy, Bethel Park, sixth-graders presented the Brace Yourself, a silky-smooth cast more comfortable than the traditional cotton ones doctors use to fix broken bones.
“Cotton gets really rough because it disintegrates from your sweat. We added silk because it’s softer and will be less itchy,” said Silvis, who recently broke her arm during basketball.
“That creativity, it’s so refreshing to see,” said Gianoutsos. “I think we start to lose that as we get older, that creativity. Just having all our elementary schools and all the students that are going to be coming into high school, having them think creatively … not only as an individual or their school, but as a community as a whole, is … powerful.”