Help may soon be on the way for those who suffer from food allergies.

Instead of relying on food labels or a waitress’s recollection to find out whether or not a particular food contains an allergen, there may be a reliable food allergen detector in the near future thanks to a team of four Huddleston Elementary fifth grade students.

Erica Barnhill, McKenna Ceci, Avery Dukes and David Stanley won an Honorable Mention Award from Exploravision for their device called The Allergy Alert. Exploravision is a competition that encourages students to combine their imaginations with the tools of science to create and explore a vision of a future technology.

“We are so proud of the Allergy Alert team and all of the other Exploravision teams in Huddleston’s 5th Grade Enrichment classes that took on the challenge of competing in this rigorous competition,” says enrichment teacher Adele Moore.

The students envisioned the Allergy Alert as a hand-held device that scans bar codes to detect certain types of food allergens. The user scans a bar code from a booklet of DNA codes for different food allergens. Once programmed, the user scans food before eating it to see if an allergen is found.

To prepare an entry, students work in groups of two, three or four simulating Research and Development (R&D) teams, along with a team coach and an optional mentor. Each team selects a technology, or an aspect of a technology, that is present in the home, school and/or community or any other technology relevant to their lives. They may choose something as simple as a pencil or as complex as a quantum computer.

The teams explore what the technology does, how it works, and how, when and why it was invented. The students must then project into the future what that technology could be like 20 years from now. Finally, they must convey their vision to others through both a written description and five graphics simulating web pages. All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving.

login to post comments