Wiesbaden, Germany — How many times has this happened to you? You’re jogging, riding your bike or exercising at the local gym when all of a sudden your iPod dies. You really wished you had charged it the night before, but it’s such a hassle to hook it up to the USB cable and then plug it into your computer. Then you have to wait until it charges. Ultimately, your workout is ruined.

Now imagine charging your iPod as you walk, run or pedal your bike. A team of inventors from Heidelberg, Germany, seems to have invented a device to combat this problem — and they’re only in the sixth grade.

Teammates Jennifer Bumgardner, Jamie Douglas, Skyler Werner and Alexis Zeller-Meyer of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe Heidelberg Middle School took first place in the 2006-2007 eCYBERMISSION regional competition for their invention, which uses piezoelectric film to charge a handheld portable device using foot motion.

The winners each received a $3,000 U.S. EE savings bond and an invitation to attend the National Judging and Educational Event held in Washington, D.C., June 11-14. The “Genius’ for Money” team, as the members call themselves, was recognized by judges for researching ways to charge a portable music player using foot motion.

The school’s second-place winners, who will each receive a $3,000 U.S. EE savings bond, are:

The “Science Angels” team, comprised of sixth graders Piper-Lenore Murphy, Sarah Moorhead, Amanda Weiss, Summer Werner, was recognized by judges for constructing a shirt designed to keep the body cool in heat and humidity. Recognizing that air conditioning is not prevalent in all communities, the team sought to design a shirt that would keep the body cool and reduce the risk of heat stroke.

The “KCT 101” team, comprised of seventh graders Tamara Reyes, Christine White and Kasie Wilcox, won their awards for addressing and recommending an alternative energy source, solar energy, to save the school money on electricity. The students felt that if the school embraced solar energy, it would not only reduce its energy costs, but also help the environment.

The “OneLastTime” team, of ninth graders Blake Billmaier, Breanna Burton, Morgan Lacy and Michael Toczek, received their prizes for investigating alternative forms of energy while conducting experiments on three energy sources — hydrogen, solar and kinetic energy.

The school’s criteria winners, who will each receive a $2,000 U.S. EE savings bond, are:

The “Blondes@heart” team, comprised of seventh graders Rebecca Ellis, Erin Hodge, Beatrice Levine and Susanna Renfrow, received an “Innovation, Originality and Creativity” award for their research and experiments to improve safety along Germany’s bike paths. They generated hydrogen energy to power a light bulb to light bike paths at night.

The “Back for More” team, comprising seventh graders Nick McIntyre, Jamaal Parham, Nathan Schiele and Jacob Smith, received an “Application of Science, Math and Technology” award for its research on the spread of germs and bacteria caused by people not washing their hands. They tested the effectiveness of various hand sanitizers in eliminating germs, with the hope that their research will motivate people to wash their hands more frequently.

Four of the teams were led by Team Advisor Kina Billmaier-Stallings, and two of the teams were led by Team Advisor Ricky Burcham. In the past four years, Heidelberg Middle School students have taken home $157,000 in U.S. savings bonds from the eCYBERMISSION competition.

“We congratulate these Heidelberg team for their fantastic accomplishment in this year’s eCYBERMISSION competition,” said Mike Doyle, U.S. Army eCYBERMISSION program manager. “These students were selected from thousands of their peers and truly set an example for leadership in science, math and technology among our nation’s youth. The U.S. Army hopes to continue to motivate and inspire students’ interests in these areas.”

The regional winning Heidelberg team, known throughout the competition as “Genius’ for Money”, traveled to Washington with team advisor, Rick Burcham, who is a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Heidelberg Middle School.

“We made up the motto first, and our motto was: ‘Genius’ for Money, Idiots for Free,’ [but] our team advisor said that’s too long for a team name,” said Werner, 11, about the inspiration for the team name. “So, I’m like: What about just ‘Genius’ for Money’?”

“Genius’ for Money’s” invention uses piezoelectric film to generate an electrical charge when bent. Piezoelectric film is most commonly made from quartz; however, crystals such as tourmaline or topaz, and sugar cane and Rochelle salt are also used. Direct piezoelectricity that is generated by certain types of substances such as quartz can conduct up to thousands of volts. The team performed a total of 10 experiments to determine the most effective way to generate enough voltage to charge an iPod. The invention took them an entire school year to complete.

“We put it inside of a shoe so that way, when you’re exercising, jogging or biking, and your iPod, if you have it with you and it dies … our advice is to put piezoelectric film inside of the shoe to create volts,” said Bumgardner, also 11. “So that way when you bend your foot it generates voltage and it charges up your iPod.”

The team came up with the idea for its invention from their team advisor, Rick Burcham, who had been to Washington before for a previous eCYBERMISSION competition, and another teacher from Heidelberg Middle school, Kina Stallings, who had piezoelectric film in a kit that was given to her during an eCYBERMISSION competition the year before.

“And so we figured, you know what? We have a pretty decent idea, we have the experience through our team advisors ... why not go for it?” said Werner.

“Genius’ for Money’s” iPod charger uses an environmentally neutral alternative energy resource that conserves energy and reduces fossil fuel pollution.

“People all around the world, they leave on the computer just to charge their iPod. And it wastes so much energy just to do that and it would be a lot simpler if you could just walk and do that. Walk and charge it,” said Zeller-Meyer, 12.

The team believes the idea of using piezoelectric film to charge small handheld devices could eventually be used by the military to power walkie-talkies, radios and global positioning systems or to power cell phones.

Bumgardner, who also plays tennis and has won awards for her photography, has dreams of becoming a photographer and one day opening a zoological park with Zeller-Meyer.

“Alexis and I plan to have a career as photographers and zoologists and go around on safaris and work for a magazine that has to do with nature,” she said.

“We’re going to try and make zoos enforce the law. Zoos should have bigger cages for animals,” said Zeller-Meyer, whose hobbies also include gymnastics and hunting.

“[We’re going to] make people more enthusiastic about animal laws,” Bumgardner added.

Werner, who enjoys playing video games and soccer, isn’t sure what he wants to do as an adult, but said he thinks designing weapons “would be kind of cool.”

“I think it’d just be kind of cool for like, your child to ask you: ‘What job do you do?’ And you go: ‘Oh, uh, I designed the new plasma machine gun.’ That’d be pretty nice,” he said.

Douglas, also a soccer player, plays for the Tornados and the Olympic Development Program in Germany.

“I either want to be in the military like my parents, because my mom’s a major and my dad’s a retired lieutenant colonel, or, it’s a far step, but I want to be a famous soccer player like Mia Hamm,” said Douglas.

While in Washington, the “Genius’ for Money” team visited the National Zoo with other eCYBERMISSION finalists for an educational field trip that included a tour of the zoo and a presentation about one biologist’s experience as a field researcher in Antarctica.

“This is my first time going to Washington. I think it’s pretty nice, a decent location and a lot of history,” said Werner.
eCYBERMISSION is a web-based, science, math and technology competition sponsored by the U.S. Army. Program participation is free, and any DoDDS-E student in the sixth through ninth grade can compete as long as their school has a sponsor willing to lead a group. The competition offers prizes and encourages teamwork while working to solve real world problems the students encounter in their own communities.

The program has awarded more than $3.5 million in savings bonds to winning students since its inception. This year 1,847 teams comprising 6,652 students competed. Since eCYBERMISSION began five years ago more than 35,000 students from across the United States and Department of Defense Education Activity schools around the world have participated.

Background on eCYBERMISSION (external site)

James Law
(410) 297-2437
(866) 462-9237
Law_james@bah.com
missioncontrol@ecybermission.com

For more information about DoDEA’s participation in eCYBERMISSION contact:

Kim Day
(703) 588-3126
kim.day@hq.dodea.edu

David Ruderman
Deputy Public Affairs Officer
Office of the Director
DoDDS-Europe
DSN 338-7613/7614
CIV (49) 0611-380-7613/7614
FAX: DSN 338-7685 CIV 0611-380-7685
david.ruderman@eu.dodea.edu

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