February Update

(Written Monday, February 23rd)

Mid-Year Grant Technical Review

The team is getting ready for the mid-year grant review tomorrow. They are making the last changes to the presentation, having another rehearsal, printing the programs, polishing the shock box, consulting and getting advice from their InvenTeams representative Don Domes. The entire team is excited.

  

Phillip getting advice from Don and Andrew and Greta polishing the shockbox

Mission Accomplished - Mid-Year Grant Technical Review

On Tuesday the 24th of February, Current Invents hosted their mid-year grant technical review at their high school, High Tech High from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Don Domes from Lemelson-MIT was there to witness the team's presentation on their project, along with over 30 other attendees. It was a great turn out. The panel was composed of professional engineers, media consultants, and business consultants who provided invaluable feedback that will help the team make changes and improvements to their project.

 

The Four Stations

Technical Booth

The technical booth presented the team's fence project and the different challenges they faced, and how they were able to overcome them. The technical team had to build the fence out of PVC pipes and two wired, instead of using the ground for a negative charge.

The main questions from the audience were on the different types of fences, how to implement them, what the target consumers were and how to establish a cost effectiveness.

Project Scope and Financial Booth

Adrian and Zack were responsible for the project scope and financial booth, and worked hard on displaying the different steps of the project since this past summer. The goal of the timeline was to inform participants as to what the team has been working on thus far, and the direction they are heading. Adrian and Zack used the Lucid Chart Program for the display. What they received as feedback was: to make sure they know what is happening with everyone, to improve communication between the different divisions, and have a dedicated time for announcement at the beginning of each meeting.

Zoe worked on the financial part to display the team expenses and how the team was meeting the expense goals.

Communication Booth

Brian, Kristina, and Victoria were in charge of communication station, and created flyers on social media as well as fundraising. They received great feedback from Stephanie Saad, the owner of Stephanie Thompson Communications who was also one of the panel members. She advised on different techniques when reaching out to other people and engineers, especially when asking for donations. In addition she provided the following feedback:

• More buildup and drama to the presentation would increase its effectiveness

• Researching the cost to ranchers/zoos in $ and loss of animals each year

• Focus more on how challenges were overcome – positive spin

• More organic growth of social media channels

• Only pitch the media when you have a concrete achievement or milestone to show; then be specific and ask them to come to the school or have them bring you to the studio to demonstrate

• Use STEM as a key message and the fact that the team, as youth, are the future

Shocking Booth

Andrew and Greta were able to shock some of the audience. People seemed to be interested in asking about how the shock box worked, how strong it was, and why the team made it. And of course, several people decided to take turns getting shocked, either playing it safe with the lowest setting, or daringly trying the highest setting.

More Pictures

Don Domes, two team parents, and a panelist