PERU – Devon Vaughn and Kayla Chiasson, eighth-graders at Peru School, like to go snow skiing, but they’re averse to cold hands.
That was the impetus behind the girls’ invention of a ski pole with a built-in hand-warmer for their April science fair project, Vaughn said Friday.
That invention also won the duo first place trophies and certificates for their grade in the inventions category at the Sandy Andy Science Fair competition for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders on April 14 at the University of Maine at Farmington.
“We were surprised to win because there were a lot of good inventions there, but the judges really liked it, and everybody liked it. It was kind of cool,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn said she and Chiasson, with help from Vaughn’s father, an electrician, put seven AA batteries and a wired “hot grip” from a snowmobile in a ski pole grip “to make it warm.”
They attached a flashlight on-off switch to the top of the pole, then tested the product and recorded their results.
“It was 10.5 volts, and it heated the grip for 40 minutes. We tried it out with gloves on, but we didn’t try it out skiing, because the season has gone by,” Vaughn said.
On Thursday, both girls each received a trophy from Peru middle school science teacher Dave Buck, for a third-place finish with the pole at Peru’s April 11 science fair.
Buck said Thursday afternoon that he sent 15 projects – five each per grade – to the Farmington event.
“All five of the eighth-grade projects received prizes. The students do a great job representing us,” he said, of the eight projects that won.
This year’s Peru science fair projects, Buck said, revealed “a lot more creativity than we’ve had in the past. They were really strong in areas of physical science.”
Brittany Errington and Kayla Bernard, he said, burned different nuts to determine how much energy each produced. Bryce Carver and Samantha White tested the friction of different surfaces.
James Moulton figured out the optimal angle for collecting solar power by shining a flashlight at different angles on a photovoltaic cell, Buck said.
“That was an ambitious project,” he added. It won a prize in Farmington.
Peru’s entry into Sandy Andy was its best and last showing, Buck said. Peru middle school students are being consolidated into SAD 21’s Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield next fall, thanks to last year’s merger between the district and Peru.
Comments are no longer available on this story