Lonza Bend announces Inventerprise Science Contest winners
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- This week, Lonza Bend announced the 29th Annual Inventerprise Science Contest Challenge Winners. This year, Central Oregon students were given the challenge of inventing something to handle the problem of “messes.”
This contest is sponsored by the Lonza-Bend site, with support from Bend-La Pine Schools.
This year’s competition problem statement was as follows:
“What a mess! Messes can be small like sticky fingers or huge such as plastic pollution in the ocean. Are you tired of seeing all these messes, tired of cleaning them up, or just wish they never happened in the first place? Invent something to handle the problem. “
The Inventerprise contest was open to all Central Oregon students in grades K-12, including home-schooled students. Entries were judged on originality, usefulness and development of concept. This year featured a 100% virtual event due to the global pandemic, 336 students entered individually and in groups, and 35 students won prizes. A full list of this year’s contest winners can be found on the Inventerprise website at http://or-inventerprise.zfairs.com.
The first place prize of $1,000 for High School was split by the team of Summit High School Seniors Tanner Taylor and Owen Wheary for their invention of a new “Jum: Gum Reimagined.” Taylor and Wheary invented a new gum formulation which is biodegradable and utilizes an enzyme activated by air to help the gum more quickly dissolve when littered on the ground.
Summit High School Junior Teaghan Knox and Senior Christopher Bird tied for second place. Knox invented a “UltraGer System” that combined Mongolian house design with features like insulation and solar power to reduce air pollution. Christopher Bird invented a “Vehicular Emissions Capture Apparatus” which would store emissions from vehicle combustion for later treatment at a collection site when fueling up.
The Middle School First Place winner was Sky Knox, a 6th grader who won a Mountain Bike for her invention of “Traffic Wind Turbine Rollers”, which combines safety features of guardrails (to avoid messy crashes) and harnesses energy from passing vehicles to create wind energy (avoiding emissions from energy generation).
Eight other entries were recognized as winners in the Middle School category and will receive specially designed T-shirts.
Twenty-two student winners in grades K-5 will receive specially designed T-shirts.
Examples of innovative winning projects from elementary school winners are listed below:
- A kindergartner invented a machine to fix messy hair.
- A first grader designed a vessel to collect trash from the ocean, using currents to help collect the trash and shaped his invention like a hammerhead shark.
- A crafty second grader made a model of a drone that would map a house and spray high traffic surfaces with antiviral disinfectant.
- A third grader created a rain gutter that filters, cleans and turns rain into drinking water.
- A fourth invented a “bubble” which cleans and filters air emissions.
- An inventive fifth grader invented “Vanishing Glitter” made of salt that dissolves once contacted with water.
Teachers in grades K-5 whose classes had above average participation were eligible for the Tina McGeary Teacher Incentive Program. This program will distribute at least $2,000 in gift certificates among area teachers for classroom supplies or books. The program is named in memory of Tina McGeary, an Inventerprise contest founder and unflagging advocate of the work that teachers do for the community.
Additional information can be found on the Inventerprise website at http://or-inventerprise.zfairs.com.
About Inventerprise
The Inventerprise Contest began in 1992 as an outgrowth of a business-education partnership between Bend Research (now a part of Lonza) and the Bend-La Pine School District to promote science education and enrich students’ educational experience.
About Lonza – Bend
Lonza – Bend, a leader in creating value by advancing medicines that improve human health.
At Lonza, we provide contract development and manufacturing services that enable pharma and biotech companies to bring medicines to patients in need. From the building blocks of life to the final drug product, our solutions are created to simplify your outsourcing experience and provide a reliable outcome, at the time when you expect it. Our extensive track record includes commercialization of pioneering therapies and manufacturing of a wide variety of biological and chemical drugs. We continuously invest to solve not just the current, but also the future challenges. Together, we can bring your next medicine to life. Further information can be found at www.pharma.lonza.com
About Lonza
Lonza is an integrated solutions provider that creates value along the Healthcare Continuum®. Through our Pharma Biotech & Nutrition segment and our Specialty Ingredients segment businesses, we harness science and technology to serve markets along this continuum. We focus on creating a healthy environment, promoting a healthier lifestyle and preventing illness through consumers' preventive healthcare, as well as improving patient healthcare by supporting our customers to deliver innovative medicines that help treat or even cure severe diseases.
Patients and consumers benefit from our ability to transfer our pharma know-how to the healthcare, hygiene and fast-moving consumer goods environment and to the preservation and protection of the world where we live.
Founded in 1897 in the Swiss Alps, Lonza today is a well-respected global company with more than 100 sites and offices and approximately 15,500 full-time employees worldwide at the end of 2018. The company generated sales of CHF 5.5 billion in 2018 with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.5 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.
