submitted by Jeanne Casatelli, Communications Specialist, Questar III
On January 12, a member of the U.S. Deaflympic Snowboard Team contacted Berlin Central School’s InvenTeam about their invention, according to their teacher and facilitator Dawn Wetmore.
The team’s idea is an adaptive sports device (ASD) that will allow hearing impaired and deaf persons to ski, snowboard, rollerblade, jog and bicycle by warning them of approaching traffic from behind so they can avoid collisions.
“We were surprised and honored to hear from Jeff Pollock, who volunteered to be our deaf athlete test pilot,” Wetmore said. “As we have not patented the invention, we explained to Jeff that we can’t send it yet but will keep him informed of our progress.”
“The device would be clipped to a belt on users with ultrasonic sensors connected to their arms which will vibrate intensely when traffic approaches, allowing them to steer clear,” explained Llewellyn Palmer, a senior and one of the team’s mechanical technicians and field testers.
Pollock explained that he lives and trains in Utah, adding, “As an educator myself, I fully support educational endeavors that are creative and enhance the learning process.” Pollock also said that he will be in Slovakia at the 17th Winter Deaflympics from February 15 to 28 and will test the device when they send it to him so he can provide feedback that may be beneficial to the team.
Out of more than 300 applicants, Berlin Middle/High School was one of only 14 schools in the nation awarded an InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program this school year. The team’s prototype will be presented in June, 2011, in Cambridge, MA, at the Eureka Fair which celebrates the invention process.
Inspired by the InvenTeam’s slogan “making life better one invention at a time,” the students are proud and excited that their idea could not only help people, but, as team member Andrew Zlotnick said, “It could save someone’s life.”
The InvenTeam students range in age from 11 to 18. The team also includes senior Toby Goodermote, sophomores Kelsey O’Dell, Chiara Dreher and Connor Brown, eighth-grader Tim Shupe, seventh-grader Emma Woolley and Ioann Popov, a sixth-grader.
For more information about the InvenTeam visit their website at http://websites.nylearns.org/dwetmore/2009/11/18/165923/page.aspx.
