A few weeks ago, the team found out that we had received the honor of being able to present our display at the 2015 White House Science Fair!!! Corine Peifer and Kristian Sonsteby were chosen to represent the team in Washington, DC.
     In addition to being invited to the 2015 White House Science Fair, our display was invited to be presented at the VentureWell OpenMinds Exhibition, which is a college version and sister program to the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Program. At the OpenMinds Exhibition, all guests were given three million "investor bucks" to invest in projects that they feel are very impressive or successful. Being that we were the only high school team in attendance with twelve college teams, we were very surprised to learn that we had received the third highest amount of "investor bucks". The team was awarded $500 in real money that will go back in to help the InvenTeam.
     On Sunday, Corine, Kristian, Mr. Shultz, and the LMIT representatives were in the White House getting everything ready for the White House Science Fair. Our display was located in the Blue Room, which is in the center of the White House. The following day, Corine and Kristian entered the White House gates at 8 AM to make last minute changes before the Science Fair opened. For about an hour, various government officials and public figures in the STEM field were allowed to visit all the students' displays and speak with the students. At around 10 AM, a live broadcast was sent out from the White House which was watched by the rest of the team back in Hawley, PA. President Obama walked around to some displays throughout the White House to meet and speak with the students, and after much anticipation, he spoke with Corine and Kristian representing or team! After meeting with President Obama, the fair was once again open to the other government officials and public fields. Around 1 PM, the fair closed, and breakdown began.
     This whole experience has been absolutely amazing for the entire team. To have created and built a device that was invited to the White House Science Fair is an immense honor. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for everyone involved, and the entire team is so thankful for the tremendous help and support from the community, faculty and staff of Wallenpaupack, and the entire Lemelson-MIT staff.

News Eagle Article by Katie Collins

Follow this link to read a lovely article about our InvenTeam by local News Eagle reporter Katie Collins!

 http://www.neagle.com/article/20140728/NEWS/140729744

EurekaFest Presentation!

Hi guys! It's been a few weeks since the InvenTeam convened and you've heard from us, but hopefully you've been enjoying your July. Can you believe it's already been over a month since EurekaFest?

Here is a link to a video of our InvenTeam's presentation at EurekaFest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUndd_N4STg

July 10, 2014

Today we are tying up some loose ends by handling some PR details and cleaning up. We are writing out thank-you letters to all of the contributors to our process, unpacking our travel trailer, and also meeting with Katie Collins from our local paper, The News Eagle, to allow her to give a final report of our experience.
Now comes the next phase of our invention process independent of the InvenTeams program. We have yet to assemble the remainder of our custom circuit boards, apply for a patent for our invention, and we may also make improvements to the structure of the device. All of that will come in later months towards the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year.
For now, have a great summer, all!

July 3, 2014

One week ago, the InvenTeam surprised our leader Mr. Shultz at his house with a party to thank him for all of the things he has done for our team. We are thankful to him for presenting us with the opportunity to participate in the InvenTeams program, for always keeping us on task, and for everything else he does for the students of the WAHS Gifted program as a whole. Because Mr. Shultz is an avid fisherman, the entire team pitched in to buy Mr. Shultz a beautiful personalized fishing reel.