Seven projects now advance to the state competition at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn on May 4
A Feedback Sound Detection App. Introduction to a Female Crash Test Dummy. A Player Piano Roll Reader. A Squeaky Clean Solar Distillery. And a Winter Golf Ball Warmer.
These are just a few of the 36 innovative inventions presented by AAPS middle and high school students last night at the A2 Area Invention Convention held at Skyline High School.
The event is a way for students to take an idea and bring it to fruition, explained the convention’s coordinator, Sarah Schemanske, who is also the PLTW teacher at Wines Elementary.
“Students go through the engineering design process, build prototypes and work through different iterations to improve their designs,” she said. “Students have the opportunity to get feedback from their classmates and from their teachers, and then the Invention Convention is a great way to showcase that work, and get live feedback from industry partners.”
Students said they not only learned a lot about the design process and teamwork but honed critical thinking skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
“The A2 Area Convention is a great culmination of students applied knowledge of design principles, ingenuity, and reflections of learning,” Schemanske. “We are so grateful for our community partners who judged so students could have an opportunity to present and receive feedback from local businesses and community entrepreneurs who have an eye for up and coming inventions.”
“We are excited to see the program is growing and we had double the amount of participants and projects from last year.”
The 22 judges from industry and AAPS staff voted on the following projects of 16 students to advance to the Michigan Invention Convention state finals at the Henry Ford in Dearborn.

One-third of the judges were from Wacker Chemical Corporation in Ann Arbor. Spokesperson Keri McDonald said Wacker always wants to support the community, and this event was also a way to support the future.
“These are our future innovators; the people who will build upon the science that we are building now,” she said.








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