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The University of Akron
05/25/2012 | News release
Mind-stretching creations
distributed by noodls on 05/27/2012 10:33
This air freshener, made mostly of rubber bands, was created by local student Halie Nitzche and won first place in the National Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors' arts and leisure division.
An air freshener made mostly of rubber bands - the
brainchild of a Richfield seventh-grader - proves once
again that Akron is home to nationally renowned innovators
inspired by rubber. Halie Nitzche of Revere Middle School
in Richfield, placed first in the National Rubber Band
Contest for Young Inventors' arts and leisure division.
The contest, presented by the Akron Global Polymer Academy
(AGPA) of The University of Akron, drew nearly 400 middle
school student entrants from 17 states.
Students competed in arts and leisure and science and
engineering divisions.
Nitzche's invention - a home accent piece -
incorporates pipe, plaster, newspaper and rubber bands, and
doubles as an air freshener. Air-freshening beads stay in
the tree's pipe trunk and can be replaced as
necessary.
Robert Keller, a fifth-grader from Canton, Mich., placed
first in the contest's science and engineering division
with his Piano Page Turner. The creation allows musicians
to turn music pages by stepping on a binder clip attached
to a wooden block that causes a chain reaction controlled
by a rubber band.
Dr. Carin Helfer, assistant director of AGPA Science
Education Outreach at UA, says students with science and
engineering entries "were challenged to use the
elastic properties of the rubber band in the function of
their inventions, and the winners did just that."
Winners from each division will receive $5,000 paper
savings bonds. Runners-up, Grace Murphy of Colorado
Springs, Colo., and Mackenzie Steele of Kaysville, Utah,
each will receive a $1,000 paper savings bond for their
inventions. The remaining finalists will receive $50 gift
cards.
The Rubber Band Contest is hosted by the AGPA at UA and is
sponsored by the University and the Rubber Division of the
American Chemical Society, all of which are based in Akron.
Story by Nikita Lero.
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.
