Las Vegas students win national invention competition
Saturday, June 6, 1998 | 10:54 a.m.
Hyde Park Middle School students Lindsey Bean, Lindsey Franks, Ashley Berg and Derek Smoot each won a $4,000 savings bond at the 1998 Discover Awards at Disney's EPCOT on Friday.
The award the group won, the Bayer/NSF award, honors schoolchildren who use science and technology to identify a community problem and offer a solution.
The Las Vegas students were disappointed to learn that neighborhood swings had been removed to prevent injuries. So using a swatch of all-weather carpet, they created a "back-belt" that keeps kids from falling out of swings by offering support to the back.
The group was one of 10 finalist teams nationwide.
"Everyone involved with it was so impressed," Anne Schmitt, spokeswoman for the competition said Saturday. "Their project was really thoroughly thought through."
During an awards ceremony Saturday night, one of the teams was to receive a $25,000 award from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation to implement their idea.
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