CHIMACUM — Two Chimacum third-grade students were named regional winners of an international student science competition with an idea aimed at stopping world hunger.
The ExploraVision competition for students in the U.S. and Canada was created through a cooperative between the National Science Teacher Association and Toshiba.
It encourages students in kindergarten through 12th grade and challenges students to envision new technologies that could help in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Students work in groups of two to four to research current technology and figure out what it could do in the future.
Ashton Rollness, 8, and Evan Tyrrell, 9, won with their idea called “The Green Box.”
“It’s not just a box that’s green,” Evan said, “but the point of it is mostly ending world hunger.”
Ashton and Evan will present their project at 10:45 a.m. Friday at the elementary school, 91 West Valley Road in Chimacum.
The students have not produced a prototype; it’s an idea based on science presented by scientist Lisa Dyson, the CEO of Kiverdi, during a TED Talk.
According to Ashton, the box would use chemoautotrophic microbes, which feed off the carbon dioxide humans exhale to help grow small gardens of micro-greens.
The small portable greenhouses could provide food within hours, through hydrogenotrophs, or micro-greens, and larger plants can be grown over the span of a few weeks or months.
“Instead of sending food places, which is really expensive, you send the means to make food,” said Mitchell Brennan, a Chimacum teacher and the ExploraVision coach.
The boys got the idea after watching Dyson explain the science. Her company is working on innovative agriculture solutions that will help supply the world’s growing population with sustainable food options.
“We watched her TED Talk, and it got us thinking that we should try and stop world hunger like she is,” Ashton said.
Chimacum students have participated in the competition for 11 years, since Brennan started teaching at the elementary school. According to Brennan, they are regularly given honorable mentions, but this is the first time any of his teams has won.
“It’s such a beautiful idea,” Brennan said. “It’s new science and it’s integrating other science. For them to come up with such a powerful, viable solution is just something.”
As regional winners, the boys now have to create a website for their project and create a video to explain it, which they hope to complete by Friday, when they present their project to the school at a morning assembly.
Brennan said the boys are pretty overwhelmed, not only by the work but being so close to huge prizes. The first-place project wins a Toshiba computer for the team’s school; a trip to Washington, D.C.; and $10,000.
“They’re one of six regional winners now,” Brennan said. “So knowing they’re that close to $10,000 at 8 years old is huge. Things like this don’t happen in Chimacum very often.”
Brennan said the boys have received a lot of support from their fellow students.
“Everybody has really come together to research and find out what these guys need to know about,” Brennan said. “They started with microbes and now are learning about all this other stuff.”
The boys have even been researching which plants would be the best to grow in these tiny breath-powered greenhouses.
“We put in a Moringa tree,” Ashton said. “Something real cool about the Moringa tree is after two months, it’ll be 4 feet tall.”
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
