ELISE CHAN
Age 8 | Ottawa, Ontario
This is a project submitted to Little Inventors, an educational organization inspiring young thinkers to imagine inventions and to become caring citizens of the planet.
Click here to see this project on the Little Inventors website.
What is your invention called?
The Ocean Helpter XT
What is the purpose of your invention?
The purpose of my invention is to help the environment and oceans by recycling plastic.
How does your invention work?
My invention works by taking plastic with its claws or the vacuum will suck it up as the Ocean Helper XT moves over the plastic. The sucked up plastic will be turned into energy. How the plastic is turned into energy is the plastic is dissolved by a liquid. There is a hole at the bottom of where the dissolved plastic is kept. There is a wheel at the bottom as well. When the plastic runs through the wheel, it turns and creates energy.
What does your invention look like?
Name the basic components of your invention.
My invention has claws in the front and a vacuum on the bottom. There are propellers to go left, right, up and down. Inside my invention there are screens and two cameras. One camera is outside in the front, and another inside beside the machine that makes the plastic into energy. This is to make sure the machine is working. My invention can have 2 people inside at a time. One person controls the claws and machine, and the other person tells the other person what to do, where to go, and where the plastic is.
How could you measure the impact of your project?
I can tell that my invention is doing its job because if I dive down in one place and collect all the plastic with the Ocean Helper XT and then go back there in a year, it will probably be much cleaner than before. I think that the invention can collect around 4 gallons of plastic per trip. This is another way to tell it is doing its job.
What are the main problems that inspired your invention?
The main problems that inspired my invention were to collect the plastic in the ocean and save the animals that are hurt. For example my friend's mom found a turtle all wrapped up in plastic and its shell wasnt getting enough oxygen so its body had to make a second shell. So, saving the animals who are hurt by plastic is important to me.
Why are these problems important to you?
These problems are important to me because I LOVE animals and the ocean is a home to creatures. I love the ocean because it is clean and calm and I want to save it. My invention can be used all over the world to save lakes, rivers and oceans.
Show us a picture of a waterway close to you that you want to keep clean. What is its name?
A waterway I want to keep clean is the Ottawa River, which is close to my home. There are lots of birds, ducks, and other animals that live in the water and along the river. In the winter when the cleaner comes to clean the canal plastic bristles fall off. These go into the canal once it melts.
In your opinion, what could other people do every day to help keep the oceans clean?
Family, friends and strangers should reduce, reuse and recycle. The most important one is to reduce the plastic. Recycling is good, but when you recycle it might end up in the landfill by accident. If you reuse something to make a craft you will probably forget about it after a while a throw in away. If everyone does that by 50 years we will probably have no plastic. Also you can volunteer to help take the plastic out of the ocean. Paper and cloth bags versus plastic bags are a good way to reduce plastic. At my house we reuse most plastic bags, and don't use plastic unless we really need it.
ABOUT THE INVENTOR
My name is Elise. I am 8 years old and I live in Ottawa, Canada. I love living here because there is so much nature to explore close by. I really love science and I want to be an animal scientist when I am older. I love everything about nature, including all animals, but my favorite animal of all is the jaguar. We need to make sure we protect the jaguar’s habitat because the rainforests are endangered. That is my next project!