Students to present fire-warning blanket at statewide competition

Published 1:25 pm Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsFrom left in back, members of the STEP Club team Rainbow Unicorns -- Jailyn Garcia, Andrea Hernandez and Glendi Deleon -- with mentor Melea Wade from Shaw Industries demonstrate the No Bakey Shakey Blankie to a judge recently at City Park School during a club competition. The flame-retardant blanket is designed to awaken people with vibrations, loud sounds and flashing lights in the event of a fire.

DALTON, Ga. — Imagine being asleep in the middle of the night as a fire spreads quickly through your home. Could a blanket notify you of the need to escape?

A blanket called the No Bakey Shakey Blankie was created by three City Park School STEP (science, technology, engineering and production) Club students who are members of the Rainbow Unicorns team: fifth-graders Glendi Deleon and Jailyn Garcia and fourth-grader Andrea Hernandez. If it detects a fire, the blanket, which is flame retardant, beeps loudly, flashes lights and vibrates.

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The Rainbow Unicorns team recently won a competition among STEP Club groups at the school, judged by local entrepreneurs and educators, and will present the blanket at Georgia Tech’s K-12 InVenture Prize Competition on Wednesday. The students were to solve a problem related to fire, waste, health or food and follow an engineering design process.

The members of the Rainbow Unicorns team discovered that more than 2,500 people die annually from house fires in the United States.

Garcia said she was happy her team won because they “worked really hard.”

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“We wanted to win and knew we did a good job because our mentors told us so,” she said. “We believed in ourselves, it feels really good.”

Judy Newman and Melea Wade from Shaw Industries were the mentors for the team. Wade said the students are “excited and nervous” to compete at the state level.

“They put in a ton of time and hard work,” she said. “Since winning the competition at school they’ve been practicing more.”

Wade said the students worked after school and during lunch. She said it’s been “an absolute joy” to work with them.

“They learned so much about engineering and technology,” she said. “I think it’s important to work with mentors in the industry so they can see the type of jobs available to them.”

Wade said the STEP Club, an after-school engineering club for girls, has shown the students there are no limitations to what they can become.

Other projects presented by STEP Club members focused on food allergy awareness, diabetes awareness, flu prevention, the decline in the bee population and food waste prevention.

Lisa Cushman, the City Park STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teacher, said all of the student groups worked hard and are traveling to Georgia Tech to watch the Rainbow Unicorns make their presentation.

“You have all done a great job,” she said after their presentations. “I can’t wait to see how the projects continue and what we see at the end of the school year.”

Cushman told the students that because they worked hard, “everyone is a winner. All these ideas are great in their own special way.”

Members of a team called the Smart, Talented, Energetic Princesses — fourth-grader Isabella Flores and fifth-graders Kamila Montalvo and Esmit Nolasco — created a lip balm to help prevent the spread of the flu.

“Each year, flu hits our community hard,” the students wrote in their description of the project. “City Park had a student pass away from the flu a few years ago. Our team has an idea to create a product that will prevent the spread of the flu and other illnesses.”

Flores said in the beginning the group didn’t know what project they wanted to focus on.

“One of my teammates suggested we do something on health,” she said.

Flores said they ran the idea by the school’s principal, Jason Brock, who liked it.

“He told us to make sure students knew the lip balm couldn’t prevent the flu,” Flores said.

Judges for the competition were Brock: Marilyn Helms, dean of the Wright School of Business at Dalton State College; Deanna Mathis with Shaw Industries; Tripp Phillips, a Dalton Middle School student who appeared on the television show “Shark Tank” with his product Le-Glue, where he made a deal with investor Kevin O’Leary; and Superintendent Tim Scott. The projects were judged on their “practicality, design-based thinking, creativity, social responsibility, marketability and manufacturing,” according to the school system’s website.

“We liked all of the projects presented because they were creative and unique ideas,” Mathis said.

She said the judges voted for the blanket because they thought it was a “marketable idea that can sell.”

“These ladies have gone as far as to create a prototype of the blanket,” Mathis said. “We feel they have the potential to present it at Georgia Tech and win.”

Helms she she loved the blanket, calling it “a clever idea.”

“We are amazed at how good of a job these girls did,” she said. “We see a bright future, all these creative minds give us hope.”

The student groups will continue to work on their projects, using the judges’ comments, in advance of the STEP Club’s annual Innovation Showcase in May. The projects will also be entered in a national competition called the Paradigm Challenge in May, the school system’s website said.

“The K-12 InVenture Prize was piloted in 2012, stemming from the passion and dedication of two high school teachers,” its website states. “Today, more than 2,000 students take part in the program throughout Georgia. Top teams from each school earn a spot in the K-12 InVenture Prize State Finals hosted at Georgia Tech. InVenture challenges students to identify real-world problems and design novel solutions through careful analysis, creativity and the scientific method.”

The competition is the qualifying event to represent the state at the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo in Washington, D.C., in May.