Camps, programs encourage youth to become inventors

Camp Invention has summer programs still available in Metro Detroit area

They are three girls who have all have discovered they can be inventors.

Morgan Gibbs, Zora Whitfield and Nyrobi Whitfield are members of the Invention Convention, an organization in Ohio that encourages students to explore their natural curiosity in math, science and technology.

Gibbs developed a bullet-proof poncho. The idea for a ballistic nylon poncho grew out of an anti-bullying campaign and the deadly Columbine shootings.

"It folds into a pouch right there, that attaches onto the bottom of a student's chair, so in case of an intruder, the poncho can be put on and the student will have a better chance of survival," Gibbs said.

Nyrobi Whitfield's invention is called Musical Fingers. The leather-tip gloves are a perfect fit for sore callused fingers and they do not change the sound of stringed instruments.  

"Normally if you were playing without the glove you have to press down on the string for all the string instruments. Well you have to press down and it will cause for the calluses to occur," Whitfield said.

"I've been inventing things or thinking about inventing things since I was very young," Zora Whitfield, Nyrobi's sister, said.

Zora Whitfield's invention is called Leave-em.  It's a compost sack that keeps the environment clean.

"Just (a) bio-degradable bag that goes around the base of your tree and when the leaves fall you pull the bag from underneath the tree and you pull the drawstring so it can turn into the actual form of the bag, then you put it in your compost bin," Zora Whitfield said.

The Invention Convention is a statewide program that began in 1993 in Sandusky, Ohio.  There is no cost to Ohio school districts or students to participate according to the Invention Convention website.

There are national programs available as well including Camp Invention. 

It was created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and has had nearly 2 million students in its summer camps. 

There are 11 Camp Invention programs in the metro Detroit area with spaces still available for this summer.

The camps operate from June 22 to Aug. 14. Each camp is a week long. For more information, click here.