BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLERAIN TOWNSHIP -- They spent much of their time brainstorming ideas, winnowing them and then searching the Internet for patents. They checked to see just how original their ideas were and whether someone thought of them first. Once intrigued by an idea, they found a way to improve on it.
Now, a day before these sophomores at Colerain High School submit their inventions and make a presentation before a panel of judges, they break into teams and fiddle and fine-tune their inventions.
One team works on a metal-mesh guard for boat propellers, another on an improved baby gate, yet another on a biodegradable six-pack holder with break-away plastic.
"The kids have come up with some real plausible, patentable ideas," said Carla Huffman, who teaches the environmental sciences classes at Colerain. "We've got some really cool ideas. I've been real pleased with what the kids have come up with."
Students in her environmental sciences class broke into teams of four and five each, and each team was given $100 in grant money -- provided by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation -- to pay for materials for their prototypes.
Their charge was to come up with prototypes that would benefit the environment or improve quality of life -- like the baby gate being put together by the team of Sarah Headley, 15; Kacy Cole, 16; Lindsey Binnie, 16; and Matt Leet, 15, all sophomores and township residents.
The gate is retractable, with one side padded and the other covered with a plastic coating for pets. It comes with a pouch for child's toys or pet accessories. The team calls it "The Super Deluxe Multi-Purpose New and Improved Baby Gate."
"It glows in the dark, so you don't stumble over it," said Sarah.
The students filled a notebook with ideas. They thought of putting their creative and collective minds to designing a planter set on a timer so it waters itself, then to a bottle cap that stays on the bottle; both were abandoned for the baby gate.
"We went wild with it," said Sarah.
The team of Vickie Rader, 16; Katie Serio, 16; Tim Ballman, 16; Scott Wilson, 15; and Dan Schaffer, 16, hit on the notion of a propeller cage. Coated with plastic and attached to a propeller with bolts, it's designed to protect marine life, like manatees, which may loll near the surface undetected by passing boaters.
Students in three classes came up with 19 different ideas, like a prototype of a bridge that melts ice -- "I think that's a very cool idea," said Ms. Huffman -- a left-handed notebook and a container that drains itself.
Ryan Schrand, 17; Ryan Lynch, 17; Catie Grebe, 16; and Joe Graber, 16, designed a shoe that doesn't require wearing socks (there is an inner base shoe) and uses a zipper instead of shoelaces.
"There's no socks to throw in the landfill and no shoelaces that wear out," said Ryan Schrand.
Some of the teams have not decided whether to pursue a patent. But Ms. Huffman said the exercise goes beyond just seeing whether the students can make it as inventors.
"I thought it would be nice for folks to see what young people can do," Ms. Huffman said.
