Student Competitions

ExploraVision Competition Winners Selected

• By Michael Hart
• 04/30/15

Winners of the ExploraVision Competition, announced April 29, have used bio-scaffolding technology to create surgeon's tools, found ways to dispose of electronic waste, discovered how to detect food poisoning and protected sea turtle hatchlings — all with technology that may not be available for 20 more years.

Open to K-12 students in the United States and Canada, the Toshiba/NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) ExploraVision program, now in its 23rd year, challenged entrants to think 20 years down the line at what future technologies may need to address while simulating real scientific research to outline how they plan to test their ideas. Students also create a mock Web site to illustrate their concept.

Working in teams of two to four, students — with the help of a teacher and adult mentor, if they so chose — competed in age-level groups, first at a regional level. Members of the four winning team members, in categories based on grade level, each won a $10,000 savings bond and members of second-place teams won $5,000 savings bonds.

Members of all eight teams will visit Washington, D.C. June 3-6 on an expense-paid trip with their families, mentors and coaches to participate in a Congressional Science Showcase on Capitol Hill.

The four winning teams by grade level are:

• Tenth-grade students from Salem, OR, who developed the Suture of the Future;
• Eighth-graders from Morganville, NJ, who created a method to preserve organic food and detect food poisoning;
• Fourth-graders from Land O'Lakes, FL, who created The Green Table to dispose of e-waste; and
• Third-graders from Merion Station, PA, who invented "rescue packs" to protect the nests of sea turtle hatchlings.

The four second-place teams by grade level are:

• Tenth-graders from Duluth, GA, who used nanobeads to capture pathogens in the blood stream;
• Ninth-graders form Battle Creek, MI, who made a hearing aid that recharges by using body heat;
• Sixth-graders from Bel Air, MD, who created a cochlear implant that enhances sound quality; and
• Third-graders from San Diego, who developed smart goggles powered by radio waves.

"The caliber of the projects entered in the ExploraVision competition serve as an inspirational reminder of the ingenuity that comes from igniting students' natural curiosity in science," said NSTA President Juliana Texley. "These students are developing innovative solutions to show how our society can do things better and more efficiently."