Blasting the competition

SANDPOINT — A Farmin-Stidwell sixth-grader won second place in the region and the state recently for his "Tsunami Blaster" concept during the Invent Idaho competition.

"It shoots a sound wave at the tsunami so it can break it apart," said 12-year-old Brady Packer. "It's kind of like tsunami against tsunami, but mine is going to be a little bit stronger."

The Tsunami Blaster, he said, uses spinning vortex of ultrasound waves to break up tsunamis. Coils on the barrel increase the spinning speed of the soundwaves, creating more power to destroy the tsunami.

Brady researched technology that already exists, which includes Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis buoys. These buoys sit in the ocean and warn of approaching tsunamis. With Brady's Tsunami Blaster, when a tsunami is detected by a DART, a helicopter would fly in the device and destroy the wave before it reaches land.

"It will go find that tsunami and blast it before it does damage like this," he said, pointing to a photo of an actual city destroyed by a tsunami. 

Laurie Stevens, experiential learning program teacher at Farmin-Stidwell, said Invent Idaho is not part of school curriculum. It is a statewide competition hosted by the University of Idaho for kids in first through 12th grades. 

"They invent a product and they have to build a prototype, and it's quite a process that they go through" Stevens said. "They do research, they learn how to research, they learn what inventors go through — the rollercoaster ride that they go on."

The categories include working models in which they have to produce a working prototype of their invention, and non-working models, which are inventions that could be invented today, but might be too out of reach for a student to build themselves. The Jules Verne category includes possible inventions of the future, something so technologically advanced, it would be impossible for today's scientists to create right now, Stevens said.

Although it is not part of curriculum, Stevens had her fifth- and sixth-grade class participate this year, spending some class time on Fridays and Wednesdays over the course of about two months. Brady said he also spent some of his own time working on his invention. 

Brady and his classmates all participated in the regional competition in Coeur d'Alene where he took second in the Jules Verne category. Afterward, he traveled to the University of Idaho in Moscow to participate in the state competition where he again placed second.

During the state competition, Brady had to make an oral presentation to the judges, which he said made him really nervous. The judging criteria included originality, inventing process, accomplishes stated goal or problem, visual appeal, research and presentation. Overall, he received a 95 out of 100 from the judges.

The comments from the judges read: "Great concept and stunning presentation. Would love to see more attention to detail in your journal. Great consideration interacting with DART and already in place systems."

Some of the other inventions included a leg brace for people in a cast so they don't have to use crutches; a game called Bok, which Brady said he actually helped with as well; a dog walking device for people who are either handicapped or temporarily disabled and can't walk their dogs; a vibrating watch to remind those with ADHD to stay on task; and a device that would solve insulin issues for those with diabetes.

Stevens said she proposed the question to the students as, "How would you solve your biggest problem?"

"I told them to go home and ponder that — that's how our greatest inventions are born, is solving our greatest problem," Stevens said.

Most kids pull from personal experience, but Brady took a slightly different approach.

"There is this girl that won the entire invention (competition) and she made an invention that would stop tornadoes, so I thought of a different disaster that was a little bigger."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybeec.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.