Ballard High School, Seattle
Green Machine
Most likely to succeed in the marketplace
Technology Challenge
Our goal is to create a commonly sold, easily accessible product that simply attaches to a bicycle that can gather the energy already being created by the bike in order to power or charge small electronics such as cell phones, iPods, GPS, and pedometers. This product will reduce electricity consumption and encourage people to use their cars less, reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We will bring our product, functioning on a bicycle, as well as have marketing information we have gathered around Seattle from bikers, health clubs, and bike stores.
VAST: Vertical Axis Savonius Turbine
Global impact award
Technology Challenge
We aim to design a simple and cheap vertical axis wind turbine that can be used to generate power for people in developing countries and that can be made out of readily available materials.
Eco-Friendly Housing
Design Challenge
In our developing world, there are an increasing number of apartments and condominiums that are homes to many families rather than single-family homes. While many people have green houses, green apartments are harder to find. Those apartments and homes that are not green are making a large, negative impact on our world. Our goal is to design a green, solar powered apartment building with a small carbon footprint that people would want to live in. We will create a three story, attractive apartment building with a solar panel covered roof, the greenest appliances we can find, and plants so that we can lessen our impact on the environment.
Wind and Sun in One
Design Challenge
We propose a unit that combines both solar and wind energy. We built a small scale model of a widely used wind mill but instead of the common blade, we planned to replace them with light weight, flexible solar panels. Our idea is that this way we could facilitate both these energies while only taking up half the area. This would also gain twice the energy in one location causing it to be more beneficial to our society.
Trees: The Lungs of Our World>
Multidisciplinary Collaboration Challenge
Our mission is to plant many trees around Ballard High School, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, in order to reduce the CO2 emissions produced by Ballard High School. We will measure and predict the levels of CO2 that Ballard High School emits over the next twenty years.
RISE: Rain Gardens in Schools Everywhere
Multidisciplinary Collaboration Challenge
For our Imagine Tomorrow project, we propose to redesign and construct an efficient rain garden that will clean water so we can reuse it—and therefore conserve energy. We will then propose to construct them in our schools to reduce our school system's use of energy and contribute to saving our source of life. Steps: 1. redesign 2. construct 3. collect public opinion 4. talk to officials 5. examine the impact on our community
Bamboo: The Wood of the Future
Multidisciplinary Collaboration Challenge
We propose the replacement of all the petroleum based chairs in our school with stronger, more eco-friendly chairs made of bamboo. We do not intend to simply throw out the old ones but rather replace the broken ones with bamboo chairs so over time the school will have completely switched over to bamboo. We will show the benefits of bamboo chairs over the M-1400 petroleum-based chairs currently in use throughout the school. We hope that our school and the Seattle School District will start the demand for bamboo so it can one day become a cheap, renewable resource.
Carbon Filter Design
Technology Challenge
We aim to design a carbon dioxide filter for cars using algae to consume the carbon and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. This would cut down on CO2 emissions and reduce the damage that is being done to our ozone layer, as well as reducing health problems (such as asthma) related to air pollution.
"Each of us has the ability to create innovative ideas. The key is to make them relevant. And these projects in this year’s Imagine Tomorrow competition are relevant. They can generate real-world value."
—Mary Armstrong,
vice president, environment, health, and safety,
The Boeing Company