Good News: Savannah students put their heads together for K-12 Inventure Prize Competition

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Young minds worked together for the K-12 Inventure Prize Competition for student investors.

Students put their heads together, starting with some ideas for inventions.

“You can go to the map of the world and click on a continent, then click on a region and it will give you information about all the water in that region,” said Destiny Allen, Savannah Arts Academy Team.

Then, they arrived at solutions.

“Whenever you don’t have time to play with your pet, it still gets entertained, and that way it doesn’t tear up all of your stuff or pee on the carpet,” said Skylar Kennett, Effingham College and Career Academy Team.

Along the way, teams of students used imagination, creativity, and critical thinking to compete with inventions - and just maybe solve world problems big and small.

“It’s really remarkable to see how passionate the kids are about their ideas,” said Tim Cone, Georgia Tech Savannah Ceismc, Program Director. “I had several judges come up to me and tell me I was judging the elementary level and I found myself getting teary-eyed because of how impressive it was to see kids get involved and care about the world around them.”

Dozens of students competed in this area’s first regional qualifier for the K-12 Inventure Prize at Georgia Tech Savannah this week - with two elementary school, two middle schools, and two high school teams advancing to state competition. All of the teams got an opportunity to exercise their collective teamwork.

“It was super fun to create the app with friends and just having a team. Destiny started the entrepreneurship program at our school, and Mrs. Walthour, our teacher, found the Inventure challenge and that’s how it started,” said Cole Kitchens, Savannah Arts Academy Team.

Inventions included an app that measures water quality anywhere in the world and a steering wheel wrap that could protect drivers.

“We created the Cover Me, which is a sleek steering wheel cover that has sensors all around it that monitors your health vitals and can be indicative of health risks that can put you and other drivers at risk on the road."

They even created a cover for school windows that shows an image of an empty classroom to potential intruders outside.

“There are a lot of terrible cases of school shootings all around the world, and the pullover is going to prevent that and have less death tolls all together," said Charlie Shaw, May Howard Elementary School Team.

All of the inventions came from thoughtful young inventors who like science or any other subject.

“We have art students and students who are passionate about speaking and students that are passionate about history and bringing all that together to say 'how do we impact the world through the creation of our product?"

Three first-place and three second-place teams from the regional qualifier advanced to the state competition, which will be held March 13 on Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus.

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