Bloom HS Students Head to MIT for Invention Celebration, EurekaFest

A team of student inventors from , one of only 13 high schools nationwide selected to receive a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant in the 2010-2011 school year, recently completed its Solar Powered Oil Recovery Center (SPORC). The SPORC will filter particulate matter from waste cooking oil, remove residual water and store it in a sealed container, preventing further water contamination and oxidation.

The Bloom High School InvenTeam will travel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., to exhibit and demonstrate its invention at the InvenTeams Showcase during EurekaFest: a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit, June 15-18.

EurekaFest is an annual event presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program, a non-profit organization at MIT that inspires youth to pursue creative lives and careers through innovation. EurekaFest empowers a legacy of inventors through activities that honor role models and encourage creativity and problem solving. The festivities will also provide the Bloom High School InvenTeam with the opportunity to meet fellow student inventors from across the country, past and present Lemelson-MIT Program award winners, MIT alumni and staff and leaders in the science, technology and engineering communities.

“The InvenTeam initiative shows students that they are capable of being inventive and teaches them how to embrace the challenges that accompany technical solutions for real world problems. This hands-on, team-driven learning experience also provides them with the tools they’ll need to be successful,” states Leigh Estabrooks, the Lemelson-MIT Program’s invention education officer. “Someday these skills can transfer to careers in scientific and technological fields, but are also useful in management and other leadership roles.”

During the InvenTeams Showcase, the Bloom High School InvenTeam, led by Barry Latham, Physics & Chemistry Instructor, will join a community of inventors at the MIT Stata Center. In addition to discussing its research and design processes and showcasing its invention, the Bloom High School InvenTeam will gather feedback to advance its prototype.

On June 18, the InvenTeams will wrap-up EurekaFest at the Museum of Science, Boston. The Bloom High School InvenTeam will join more than 200 high school students from across the country, along with the general public in hands-on invention activities.

More information about Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams is available on their website and a detailed schedule of EurekaFest can be found online as well.

ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM

Celebrating innovation, inspiring youth

The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates outstanding innovators and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific inventors, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. It is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and administered by the School of Engineering. The Foundation sparks, sustains and celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit. It supports projects in the U.S. and developing countries that nurture innovators and unleash invention to advance economic, social and environmentally sustainable development. To date The Lemelson Foundation has donated or committed more than U.S. $150 million in support of its mission.