East Mountain High School Innoventure Team Takes First in Statewide Competition
Posted March 15, 2010
On Thursday, March 11, the East Mountain High School Innoventure Team traveled to New Mexico State University to compete in the annual Innoventure Competition, taking first place overall as well as awards for Best Marketing Plan, Best Prototype Design and Best Oral Presentation.
The Innoventure Competition is a New Mexico based middle and high school competition focused on encouraging teamwork, solving problems, and learning more about science, engineering, and entrepreneurship. Students are challenged to design an innovative product to meet a world problem and to create a prototype and business plan to support that product.
Only ten teams out of eighty-five entries were selected from across the state to participate in the official competition at New Mexico State University. Five students represented East Mountain High School as the THRIVE Team: Josh Young, Joseph Young, Marc Lucero, Lana Kimmel and Conner Colson. Olga Vazquez, an EMHS Science Teacher, was the team coach. Each team member received a $350 scholarship to New Mexico State University and a Flip mini-camcorder.
The team’s challenge was to devise a product that would promote the welfare of poverty-stricken children worldwide. Thinking of the many parts of the world that suffer from deforestation, poor soil and crowded conditions, the team created a specially stacked garden that resembles a farm in a box. Team CEO, senior Josh Young, said that a lot of work went into engineering the product. “The first product we created was a backpack that turned into a tent,” he said. “When that didn’t work we came up with the garden.” Freshman Conner Colson agreed. “The engineering part was fun,” he said, “and creating the business plan was interesting too.”
While Young described working with others as the most difficult part of the Innoventure Competition, freshman Lana Kimmel thought otherwise. “Presenting was definitely the hardest part,” she said. “The realization of what a big accomplishment that was didn’t hit me until I was about to fall asleep,” she added. “I was very, very, very, very happy.”
Coach Olga Vazquez echoed that sentiment. “I got goose bumps when I saw the students standing up there accepting their award,” she said. “This is such a good experience because it’s a real life problem solving experience. Science, engineering and the business world are combined. They had to make a video and write a 75 page business plan. These students were able to do so well at this competition because all the teachers here are giving them what they need to be successful.”