Grant Enables Invention Project
By Ann Marie French, The Saratogian
10/31/2007
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Some seniors at Saratoga Springs High School have been given an opportunity to develop an invention that could change the way people plant gardens and crops on both a local and global level. The group, Saratoga Springs InvenTeam, is made up of 14 seniors enrolled in Michael Gallagher's Engineering, Design and Development course. They were recently awarded a Lemelson-MIT grant which will provide up to $10,000 in funding to develop a device which will evaluate soil and match it against a database to provide a list of the plants and flowers which are most likely to successfully grow in it."Rather than you changing the garden environment to suit the plants, you find the perfect plants for your environment," said student Elliott Poppel who is serving as the project director. Poppel and his peers, in compliance with grant requirements, will be responsible for developing the device over the next eight months and presenting it in the spring at the InvenTeam Odyssey at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thousands are expected to attend the event, which will be part of the larger Lemelson-MIT Program's Eureka-Fest. "I just think this is so exciting," said Juliana Wakeman, one of only two girls on the team. "The fact that we have these opportunities at the high school level is exciting." With her best subject being math and her father an engineer, Wakeman's interest in the topic is not surprising. She took the required half year of technology in middle school like the rest of her peers. Those classes piqued her interest and when she moved on to high school she looked for additional opportunities with the technology department. "All the teachers are great," she said. "Mr. Gallagher will never tell you you can't do something. He may tell you how difficult it might be, but he let's us know the sky is the limit and encourages us the whole way." Wakeman, who expects to study aeronautical and astronautical engineering in college, serves as leader for one of three research groups within the larger group. She said one of her jobs is to simply keep others on task and focused on the research. "Everyone gets an equal opportunity," she said. "Everyone gets to take ownership of the project." That teamwork and level of communication rank high on Poppel's interest in the group.Unlike most of the other group members, Poppel views his involvement as great training for business management. "This gives me real work experience in helping me learn how to communicate with people," he said. Gallagher said the team members are committed to the project, which requires them to not only work on it during the scheduled class, but also several days each week after school for a few hours at a time. Although the course typically facilitates smaller projects in small group settings, this year's project would not have been possible without the grant said Gallagher. "Without the money it's hard to be innovative and creative," he said. For her part, Wakeman said she is working on encouraging an increased awareness at the middle school level about the high school technology program and its involvement with Project Lead the Way. She and several other students will be speaking to middle school students later this year.The team has been keeping a blog which includes a video they submitted as part of their application package. The blog can be accessed by logging on to http://saratogainveteam.blogspot.com.
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