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More than 440 students will compete in the Kansas City Invention Convention, which takes place at the UMKC Swinney Recreation Center next Thursday.
But for some students, the competition is already underway.
"You hold that, I'll hold this, and then I’ll bring out my phone and be like, 'Oh, and as you can see here...'" said Mary Flood, as she instructed her peer Kelsey Wynne.
The ninth graders at St. Teresa’s Academy already know their lines by heart—they even coordinated their movements.
Their project is called InvisiTracker, earrings that track one's location.
“So you don’t have to worry about getting lost,” Wynne explained.
The invention was inspired by a fear they often face.
“Sometimes, when we're out by ourselves or just hanging out with friends, it can feel scary,” Flood said.
"We saw how many cases there are of kids going out by themselves and not having anything to contact anybody if they run into a problem," Wynne said.
The process of finding a solution to their problem didn’t happen without the help of their biology teacher.
“I’m always blown away by what 14- and 16-year-olds are coming up with. I never thought this way when I was in high school,” Renee Blake, science department chair at St. Teresa's Academy, said.
"Blown away" is also how Jessica Berlinsky, one of the KCIC organizers, described the inventions on display.
“We have students who are trying to solve problems that directly affect them—maybe in their home life—but also problems that could impact the entire world,” Berlinsky said.
She says more than twenty-five schools from all over the KC metro area will participate.
More than 130 St. Teresa’s Academy students will be there.
At the private school, they take the competition so seriously that they were even concerned about information “leaking” to their competitors.
Beyond developing creativity and problem-solving abilities, students gain experiences that could benefit them in the future.
“You can use presentation skills and project management skills from an invention convention project in your everyday life,” Berlinsky said.
“It feels like I’ve accomplished something. This wasn’t something I ever expected us to work on,” Flood said.
“I think we’re ready. I think they’re going to do great,” Blake said.
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