Davenport West InvenTeam October Blog Post

West High School's INSPIRE program was selected as one of thirty-six finalists to apply for the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam™ grant after surpassing initial application stages in April. The Lemelson-MIT Program announced the fifteen recipients of the $10,000 InvenTeam grant, including INSPIRE's Kenya Water Project. This grant establishes Davenport West as a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam. This is the second time Davenport West High has been selected.

The Davenport West High School InvenTeam focuses on developing an innovative solution to the water crisis in Kenya. They work closely with their client, Joshua Ngao, and five villages across Kenya in various stages of development. Students will be designing a hybrid system of traditional water-purification methods combined with modern technologies during the school day in a collection of PLTW capstone classes. The design will filter out the contaminants in unsafe drinking water and will be cost-effective. Multiple prototypes are being tested which will use available resources indigenous to the rural areas of Kenya.

The Davenport West High School InvenTeam is currently fundraising for the trip to EurekaFest in June 2019 to present their final solution, and will continue their efforts as the year goes on.

"We are real innovators that are helping real people, and solving real problems. This experience will change our lives while also drastically improving the quailty of life of many others."
- Senior Zak Keel, Project Administrator