Évangeline and Oscar
Age 8 | Ladysmith, BC
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?
La Méduse (French for ‘Jellyfish’)
What is the purpose of your invention?
Évangeline: To clean the ocean.
Oscar: To help pickup garbage and to remove oil from the sea that could hurt sea life.
How does your invention work?
É: It sucks up water and filters garbage and oil out of it and then squirts it back into the ocean.
O: It sucks up the garbage through one part and oil from the other and filters back in the good water it also helps sea life that get caught in garbage and get covered in oil.
What does your invention look like?
Original sketch
Adaptation for Little Inventors article
Name the basic components/features of your invention.
É: An animal sensor so it won’t hurt animals, it will send them to a vet if it does hurt one. The tentacles have sponges that suck up the water. There are compartments inside to collect the oil and garbage. It looks like a Jellyfish so it won’t scare the sealife.
O: We chose a jellyfish so other sealife would stay away and its main features are it sucks up oil and filters the good water back in and collects the garbage.
How could you measure the impact of your invention? How can you make sure it’s doing its job?
É: The water will appear cleaner and there will be more animals and sealife living in it.
O: There should be a change in the content of garbage and hopefully no oil residue in the area after clean up.
What are the main problems that inspired your invention?
É: I learned there was oil and garbage in the water.
O: Our teacher taught us about the pollution in the ocean and I was so upset to hear that so we decided to build a machine to help save our oceans.
Why are these problems important to you?
É: I love the environment, oceans and animals and I want to help and protect them.
O: I love being in the sea catching crabs and seeing all the sealife and I want that to always be there.
Show us a picture of a waterway near you. Why do you want to keep it clean?
É: Our favourite beach by our house is called Transfer Beach. It is in Ladysmith.
O: My favourite beach is in Qualicum. I get to see all the seals and go crabbing I have the best time there.
What can other people do every day to help keep the oceans clean?
É: Quit throwing garbage in the ocean and stop oil spills from happening.
O: We all need to recycle and stop throwing garbage on land and sea and I wish the tankers would stop letting oil in to our beautiful oceans.
ABOUT THE INVENTORS
Évangeline
Evangeline is 8 years old and is currently in Gr. 3. She was born and raised in Ladysmith, BC. She has been studying French Immersion since Kindergarten and loves math, science and music. She has always been interested in nature and loves hiking, swimming, and exploring beaches. She also volunteers at a fish hatchery every Sunday to help keep our salmon population healthy. In Gr. 1, her teacher told them about the problems in the ocean and the students were encouraged to make an invention for Little Inventors to help save the oceans. She and Oscar invented ‘La Meduse’ for this project and they ended up being one of 15 finalists from 700 project ideas nation wide. She hopes to build her invention one day and find other ways to help protect the environment.
Oscar
Oscar is 8 years old he is the middle child having two brothers and a sister. Oscar is currently in grade 3 French immersion he was born and raised in cedar BC and is about to make a huge move to Nova Scotia where we have purchased a waterfront property as all of our children love the ocean. Oscar loves sharks and is part of a shark conservation to protect the sharks he watched shark pings and loves to follow their activity. In grade one their amazing teacher Mme Camille told them the problems the oceans and environment were experiencing and he was really concerned and wanted to help and I can’t be prouder of what both himself and Evangeline have accomplished and Oscar would love to build their invention one day.
Evangeline and Oscar at a Sea life Celebration, at Ladysmith Marina