12/1/22 Oswego East InvenTeam Progress
Hello everybody! Welcome to the Oswego East High School InvenTeam's first blog post!
We'd like to introduce everybody and their different team roles:
- Jensen C. - Team Leader
- Olivia S. - Communications Lead
- Aarin B. - Technical and Financial Lead
- Marc T. - Sustainability Lead
- Denise G. - Engineering Documentation lead
- Ahmed F. - Fabrication Lead
- Anshul P.
What is the problem we are trying to solve?
Schools have approximately quadruple the number of people as office buildings but with the same amount of floor space. Such a high concentration of people results in indoor air quality concerns. Studies have shown that school buildings often have five times more airborne pollutants in ppm (parts per million) than the outside air. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a shocking fifty percent of United States schools have poor air quality. This phenomenon of substandard school air quality detrimentally impacts America’s youth by triggering asthma symptoms, impairing cognitive functioning, heightening the spread of illness, and amplifying mental health problems. What do all of these issues lead to? Increased absences. Even the slightest decline of school air quality causes a significant increase in absences the following day. That is why we, the Oswego East InvenTeam, have been working relentlessly on an eco-friendly solution to prioritize both our youth's education and our environment.
What have we accomplished?
We have been meeting at least three times a week to research the ideal living conditions of algae, design our invention in CAD, and order what supplies we need. After creating a digital prototype, we created a full scale cardboard model and implemented our Raspberry Pi. With the weekly help of our MIT mentor, we have learned how to maximize our time spent together and where to order the most effective engineering parts. We have also been heavily improving our coding skills, as we are designing an app for users to manage and control our invention. Our team has even created a plan for our excess product to go towards by developing a bioplastic mold.
How have we been recognized?
Our school had our names along with our accomplishment displayed on the digital marquee sign at our main entrance. We also got a formal letter from our state's representative, Lauren Underwood, congratulating us on our achievement. We have reached out to a number of news stations and will hopefully have more media coverage in the coming weeks.
We are extremely grateful for this amazing opportunity and are really excited to keep everyone updated on all the progress we are making. Stay tuned to learn more about how Oswego East is helping both students and the environment in one unique invention!
