Hanging With My Gnomies!

November with the Gnomies!

 

It’s East Central’s first blog post as a 2022 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam. We are grateful and thankful to  receive this opportunity, and we plan to make the best of it, as we work to make experiencing wildfires safer. So far, our team is working super hard to meet our short term goals, including: measuring and constructing our quarter and half scale prototypes, burn testings, and working towards the team’s safety and wellness, and most important of all, having fun! 

A quick recap of our Portable Wildfire Shelter:

The shelter will be made up of the components CarbonX and aerogel, designed to be heat-proof, and fire-proof. We plan on making our invention compact enough to store in the trunk of any vehicle, so that at any given time, the fire-proof shelter will be at an arm's reach. 

Get some Gknowledge with our mascot Gnorman!

According to  U.S. news,  wildfire cause an average of 33,000 deaths each year. Before we get into the details of what our team has been doing in the past meetings, how do wildfires even spread? How are populations affected by wildfires, and why is it so important to come up with an invention to save them? In the past, to treat wildfires, firefighters didn't consider how forest fires destroyed the very flammable underbrush along with them. As a result from putting out the wildfires too early, the underbrush grew, creating more tinder for the next fire that would take place. Once a fire got out of hand, firefighters had difficulty handling them because of the massive amounts of underbrush that fueled the fire. These fires can spread very quickly over large areas and destroy everything in their pathways. Aside from the 33,000 deaths, according to healthdata.org, there are around 9,000,000 injuries alone! That’s a lot! This is why the ECHS InvenTeam feels so strongly that a working out solution should lead to new and improved inventions. 

At the beginning of this month, we started with creating prototypes of our fire shelter that are comfortable, safe, and small-family friendly. To do this, we watched many videos on how to compose a dome-like structure and connect all the pieces together. 

Breland Graves & Kameryn Bardwell with our paper prototypes.

Now that we have an idea of what it needs to look like, it’s time to search for materials that will not only keep toxic gasses and heat out, but also keep out the flames that can rush up to 60 miles an hour. After much research, our team decided on CarbonX and aerogel. CarbonX is a fabric that is flame retardant, light weight, and soft to the touch. Interesting fact: CarbonX is  used to make safety clothing for Nascar racers in the event their car explodes into flames! Aerogel is a synthetic, porous material created by replacing liquid components of gel with a gas without significant collapse of the gel structure. The result is a solid with extremely low density and extremely low thermal conductivity. We want to weave these two materials and fabrics together in order to create the perfect outside layer for our fire-proof dome structure.

This is a close-up of CarbonX while being set on fire, and the result of the constant flame. As you can see, the fabric was not damaged, and can resist a flame! Proper safety measures were taken during this test, such as wearing goggles and gloves!

Our team is currently working on the proportions of our real model, as well as creating quarter and half scale prototypes. During the first trial of creating the full-scale model, we noticed a slight problem with the measurements. The top half of our dome was way too big for the diameter of the base of the dome. With some simple re-measuring with new formulas, we were able to fix this problem and construct the perfect sized dome for at least 4 people. 

We would like to introduce to you our team members of the ECHS InvenTeam:

Kameryn Bardwell: Kameryn is our president of the club, and the administrative lead. Kameryn has the qualities for a great leader, and is very encouraging to her team members. Kameryn is also a part of the communications team and research team.

Breland Graves: Breland is the vice-president of our club and the lead for the research team. Breland is the sunshine in our group, and never fails to put a smile on anyone’s face. Breland is also a member of the administration team and the financial team.

Avery Rogers: Avery is the secretary of our science club, and the lead for the communications lead. Avery is compassionate and inclusive of her team members, and loves to help out whenever she can. Avery is a part of the administrative team and the research team.

Leah Rice: Leah is the financial lead for both the ECHS InvenTeam, and our science club. Leah is great with numbers, and works hard to get past any obstacle in her way. Leah is also a member of the communications team and the sustainability team.

Madelyn Bardwell: Madeyn is the lead for the sustainability team. She is very creative and smart, and is the perfect person for this role. Madelyn is also part of the tech team as well as the research team.

Grant Wilson: Grant is our tech lead because he is well-rounded in the building and manufacturing area. Grant has won many robotics competitions. He is also a member of the administrative team and the sustainability team. 

AnnElise Kuy: AnnElise is a member of the communications team as well as the financial team. AnnElise is very smart, and very helpful when she comes up with solutions to any problem that our InvenTeam faces.

Brett Killingsworth: Brett is a member of the finance team and the tech team. As the creative and friendly person that  he is, Brett is a very valuable member of the team.

Gage Goff: Gage is a member of the sustainability team and the tech team. Gage is very good at building objects, and is a great choice for the roles he participates in.

And last, but never least, Mr. Chesser. Without Mr. Chesser, the ECHS InvenTeam would not be where we are today. He is the reason that we young inventors are who we are, and why we want to make the world a better place. We could not ask for a better person for the job, and are very thankful that Mr. Chesser is our leader in the world of science and inventing.

Onto the highlights!

This is our team celebrating our Lemelson-MIT Grant with a pajama party and Star Wars binging! We brainstormed ideas about the future testing of our prototypes and can’t wait to test them out. Can you see our mascot Gnorman the Gnome?

This is some of the girls of our team preparing to cut up some fabric to correctly size each part of our prototype. Remember to stay safe! 

One last big thank you from the team to everyone who made this experience possible, and we can wait to see you in the next blog! See you next time on Hanging with the Gnomies!