Granville fifth-graders invention in contention

By Joshua Bassett

Emily Powers, a fifth-grader at Granville Elementary School, said her messy desk served as an inspiration to her for a class project that has been entered in a competition.

“I did it for my young scholar’s class,” said Powers, adding that the whole class had to create a plan for an invention but the choice to send the project to the Museum of Innovation and Science (miSci) in Schenectady was her own.

“It’s just cool to create things,” Emily said about why she sent in her projects the last two years and what she enjoys about inventing.

Students had to design a proposal for “a device or a method for solving a problem that can occur in the environment, in technology or industry, in the classroom, home or during leisure time activities,” according to a press release from miSci.

Asked if the desk organizer was helping keep her desk cleaner, she said it wasn’t, because her organizer was a prototype and it was sent to miSci to be put on display.

This year 1,174 students in the Capital District submitted projects for Invention Connection 2015. Out of those, 100 were chosen to be semi-finalists and must create a prototype of their project to be on display at the museum.

Powers said she does not know yet if her project was selected as one of the top 25 this year. She will not know until a reception and awards ceremony this evening.

Emily’s parents, Chris and Lori, said they’re proud of Emily.

“She’s very creative,” Lori said.

Emily said she has great ideas throughout the year but always seems to forget them when it comes time to submit a project for her class.

Emily said last year her project was a timer for people who are hearing impaired, which she said she was inspired to do because of something her brother said to her about a doorbell for the hearing-impaired. Emily said she has been the only student at the elementary school whose project was selected the last two years.

Emily said her project was selected as one of the 25 best projects last year and her father Chris said they received a letter in the mail not long after from miSci asking Emily to submit a three-minute video of her with her project to be featured by Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” which they said ended up not being chosen.