Science Competition (North America)
Toshiba has organized the ExploraVision Awards (EVA), a science and technology contest for U.S. and Canadian students from kindergarten through high school, in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) since 1992.
EVA is a science contest with a dream, predicting future technologies that might be realized in 20 years based on existing science and technology. Entering its 20th year of existence this year, EVA has the longest history of any activity conducted by a Japanese company to support science education in the U.S. More than 280,000 students have participated, and the number of applications for participation exceeds 86,000 to date.
Every year, we invite the eight teams that have made the most outstanding proposals to Washington, DC to be presented with awards. In addition to offering the students a forum in which to exhibit their prizewinning projects, the event also affords them an opportunity to visit their local congressmen and senators in order to present their reports. Toshiba employees also participate in a variety of ways, including managing events and leading teams.
Schedule
Children form teams with their teachers, and commence entry procedures from September. For each theme, the teams study the existing science and technology, and using this as a base propose a technology that they would like to see realized in 20 years.
The proposals are then reviewed, and in March the best 24 teams are selected as Regional Winners. Following this, the proposals made by the Regional Winners are published on the EVA website, and in April four teams are selected to receive First Prize, and another four teams are awarded Second Prize. In June, the students in these eight teams, together with their teachers and families, are brought to Washington, DC for the awards event (EVA Weekend).
Awards Event
On the day before the awards ceremony, the teams visit the offices of their local congressmen and senators and present their prizewinning reports.
Senator Barack Obama (2006)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (2007)
Senator Hillary Clinton (2003)
On the morning of the awards ceremony, each team is interviewed by its local television station, appearing live on the morning news.
They have the opportunity to explain their projects to VIPs and the media.
Politicians and celebrities from the U.S. and Canada send congratulatory letters and videos. In 2010, a letter came from President Barack Obama.
The prizewinning students are congratulated by VIPs at the awards party.
The Vermont team appearing on a program with U.S. television personality Bill Nye (The Science Guy)
The New York team explaining their project to VIPs
Mr. Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America, expressing his congratulations
Topics
Every year, the prizewinning teams visit the offices of their local congressmen and senators on the day before the awards ceremony in order to present their winning reports. In 2011, eight students and teachers were requested by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee to speak at the first-ever Committee hearing on science education as representatives of the nation, and the Mayor of Washington, DC declared June 17, the day of the awards ceremony, ExploraVision Science and Technology Day.
EVA prizewinners attend the first Congressional hearing on science education
Declaration of ExploraVision Science and Technology Day by Mayor of Washington, DC
2011 Prizewinners
1st Place Winners
GRADES K-3 (Kindergarten to 3rd year elementary school)
• Theme: i.streets
• School: Discovery Montessori School - Edinburg, TX
Intelligent Streets (i.streets) is a system to reduce the number of accidents at intersections by applying a smart translucent film able to receive signals from traffic lights or satellites to vehicle windshields.
These signals transform the molecular structure of the film, generating the correct traffic command (go, caution, stop, etc.) irrespective of weather conditions, the driver's state of attention, or adverse conditions such as power outages.
GRADES 4-6 (4th to 6th year elementary school students)
• Theme: The HEADS UP! Helmet
• School: Virginia Virtual Academy - Herndon, VA
The HEADS UP! Helmet is a military helmet designed to protect military personnel from brain injuries caused by explosive devices planted in combat areas.
To enable the helmet to detect concussive force, it will be equipped with extremely sensitive temperature and air pressure sensors, and will be formed from micro-layers of impact-resistant, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene sheet.
GRADES 7-9 (1st to 3rd year junior high school)
• Theme: Subway Smart System
• School: Horace Mann School - Bronx, N.Y.
The Subway Smart System reuses wasted wind in the New York City subway system to generate electricity using Smart Rails and Smart Grass.
Smart Rails will be installed on the track ties and on the walls of the tunnels in order to generate energy from the wind produced when trains move along the tracks. Smart Grass will transform wind power into usable current through the pressure of the wind on piezoelectric crystals.
GRADES 10-12 (1st to 3rd year high school)
• Theme: Bionic Auditory Prosthesis
• School: Hopewell Valley Central High School - Pennington, NJ
The Bionic Auditory Prosthesis (BAP) is a prosthetic inner ear designed to cure hearing impairments by enabling the brain to process sound while bypassing the entire inner ear and vestibulochlear (auditory) nerve.
The BAP provides a fundamental cure for hearing impairment, offering a more universal approach than cochlear implants or hearing aids.
2nd Place Winners
GRADES K-3 (1st year kindergarten to 3rd year elementary school)
• Theme: The Solar Tree
• School: Countryside Montessori Charter - Land O' Lakes, FL
The Solar Tree will supply safe, low-cost solar and wind power to every home using a process similar to photosynthesis in trees.
Artificial leaves will transform sunlight and wind power into energy (electricity), reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
GRADES 4-6 (4th to 6th year elementary school)
• Theme: BlindSight
• School: Plainview Old Bethpage Middle School - Plainview, NY
BlindSight is a contact lens with an inbuilt nano-camera that sends streaming video to a computer chip implanted in a blind person's occipital lobe.
The camera moves with the body, or with the eyes as they look from side to side. BlindSight will also make it possible to retrieve memories and scenes that are preserved in the frontal lobes of people who have lost their sight.
GRADES 7-9 (1st to 3rd year junior high school)
• Theme: I-TBS
• School: West Hills Middle School - West Bloomfield, MI
The I-TBS (Intra-trachea Breathing System) is a system that promotes the osmosis and diffusion of oxygen and its more efficient uptake by the body for patients suffering from breathing disorders or respiratory diseases, whose respiratory functions are maintained through the use of equipment employing zeolite towers containing aluminum silicate particles that fix nitrogen molecules.
The I-TBS, surgically placed in the upper respiratory tract, will detect the concentration of oxygen in the patient's bloodstream, and remotely transmit this data to a doctor's computer system.
GRADES 10-13 (1st to 3rd year high school)
• Theme: 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer
• School: Stuyvesant High School - New York, NY
The 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer offers an alternative to high-cost kidney transplants.
First, the Kidney Bio-Printer will copy the functions of the kidneys through mechanisms of cell fusion and organogenesis.
Next, using print heads containing proteins, organic fillers and stem cells, the system will form a kidney structure in layers, producing a transplantable kidney that is compatible with the individual patient.
