Chaney students get creative with potato-chip bags

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Thomas Edison invented the long-lasting light bulb.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Taelyn Childs invented magnifying reading glasses.

Taelyn, 11, a sixth-grader in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics program at Chaney Campus, devised his creation using a Shearer’s Potato Chips bag for the frames and magnifying plastic for the lenses.

“If you want to examine something, you can use these instead of using a microscope,” Taelyn

explained.

He invented them for the Shearer Perfection Student Contest, which allows students in grades 4-8 to show off their creativity and ingenuity incorporating one or more of the potato-chip bags.

Some Chaney inventors’ creations did double duty. They entered them in both the Shearer’s contest and the Regional Invention Convention competition.

Pam Lubich, Chaney STEM coordinator, said for the regional contest, students had to identify a need and invent a tool to address it.

Eighth-grader Kevin Nunez, 13, invented something to solve a problem at home.

It’s a Super Sock Hamper.

“Kids don’t like to clean their rooms, so there are socks on the floor,” he said.

The hamper, fashioned from a net attached to a ring and closed at the bottom, could hang on the wall of such a kid’s bedroom. A messy kid could throw his or her socks into it. The hoop incorporates a Shearer’s bag.

“They could make it a game while they’re cleaning up,” Kevin explained.

DaQua Douglas, 12, a sixth-grader, used a chip bag to make a pair of flip-flops.

“It’s a shoe for people in hot climates,” he said.

He developed his invention “because people don’t have shoes in Africa.”

Eighth-grader Ja-Casia Carmichael’s great-uncle inspired her creation.

“My grandmother’s brother is blind,” she said.

Ja-Casia, 14, folded and assembled chip bags into a billfold with a window in it.

A blind person can use it to scan paper money and identify its denomination using a phone app. That will enable visually impaired people to shop and ensure they’re paying with and getting change in the correct amounts.

Jada McCauley, 12, a sixth-grader, forged her creation with her teachers in mind.

She calls it a phone board.

“You can be on the phone and at the board at the same time,” Jada said.

She’s watched teachers who are in front of the class have to go to their desks to retrieve their smartphones to look something up. Her invention will eliminate that back and forth.

Other students geared their inventions solely for the Invention Convention.

Michael Doucette, 14, created what he calls a Mobile Shelter Backpack for the Invention Convention event. It’s a one-person tent that fits inside of a backpack.

He made it with homeless people in mind, allowing them to stay dry outdoors.

Seventh-grader Lawalyn Lewis, 13, conceived the Mower-Bot.

“It’s an advanced robot that mows the grass,” Lawalyn said, explaining that it will save time for homeowners.

It’s also solar-powered so it’s environmentally friendly, too.

Seventh-graders Nathan Austin, 12, and Moses Lytle, 13, developed the EZ Mix.

It mixes two drinks, cream soda and orange pop, to create a new concoction.

Seventh-graders Ralph Smith and Osa Omoregie, both 13, forged a new-styled drill to facilitate oil or diamond drilling.

They used a 3-D printer to create the prototype.