Kids bubble over with new uses for wrap

The young inventors contest is sponsored by the National Museum of Education in Akron.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — It’s the stuff that many people find addictively fun to pop after opening a fragile package.

But for a group of young inventors, Bubble Wrap is more than something to stomp on, it’s a source of inspiration. To 11-year-old Kayla Weston, it’s a building material for shock-absorbing flooring for dancers; 11-year-old Max Wallack used it to create wrist cushions for carpal tunnel syndrome sufferers.

“What’s better than resting on air?” asked Max, of Natick, Mass.

Max is among 15 semifinalists competing in the second year of the Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors, sponsored by Sealed Air Corp., the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based creator of the packaging material. More than 1,400 entries were received from pupils in 39 states.

Max said he spent months creating Bubble Wrap-filled socks with elastic and fabric fastener to tie around the wrists of people with carpal tunnel syndrome. He asked his grandmother to try out his prototypes.

“I wanted to help her because she had all these cumbersome splints, things that didn’t help at all,” Max said. “Before she had surgery, she was wearing it and it usually helped.”

The contest, administered by the Akron-based National Museum of Education, was promoted in schools across the country, and was limited to pupils in grades five through eight. Contest entries had to be original inventions that incorporated the use of clear Bubble Wrap brand cushioning. Company officials say it’s possible some of the pupil inventions could be used to create new products.

Among the semifinalists was Manoah Burden, 11, of Akron, who created a three-dimensional model of a DNA double helix.

The competition encourages the type of inventiveness demonstrated by Sealed Air’s founders 47 years ago, when they realized a decorative wall covering they had designed actually made good cushioning for items being shipped, according to Rohn E. Shellenberger, a company manager.

Other semifinalists used Bubble Wrap to create a coin bank, a kite kit, a plant shelter, a teaching tool for blind people learning Braille, and wallpaper designed to engage and stimulate children with autism.

“What better way to celebrate a great invention than to try to encourage America’s youth to take the product and try to reinvent something else out of the same product?” said Shellenberger, who manages the company division that includes Bubble Wrap.