East Naples grade school students present patent ideas in D.C. contest

They may be small, but this team of 10- and 11-year-old Collier students thinks big.

Their idea on how to save bees from aerial mosquito spraying caught the attention of Florida legislators and qualified them for a spot at the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Lego League Global Innovation Award competition in Washington, D.C., this week.

The team, called the Blue Rays, from Seacrest Country Day School in East Naples, was one of 20 selected out of 30,000 to attend the competition. They were also the youngest.

More:Seacrest's robotics team qualifies for world competition

More:East Naples kids ages 9 and 10 win robotics competition, qualify for regional

The 20 teams were evaluated based on their ability to solve a real-world problem relating to animals.

The Blue Rays spent months researching bees and pesticide spraying to come up with an idea that backyard beekeepers could use to better protect their hives from aerial spraying.

Beekeepers already use sprinklers to trick their bees into thinking it’s raining, which drives bees back to their hives. But sprinklers produce large water droplets that can easily kill a large percentage of the hive, so the Blue Rays came up with the idea of using a mister instead of a sprinkler.

The Blue Rays also addressed a second flaw in how beekeepers protect their hives. Bee colonies can host up to 80,000 bees, and not all can fit inside the box at one time. When it rains, or when beekeepers mimic rain, many bees will gather around the exterior of the box, thus remaining vulnerable to deadly pesticides.

The Blue Rays came up with idea of using a beach tent to protect the colonies for the duration of the spraying.

Blue Rays coach Tina LaFreniere, said the team appreciates the dangers of Zika, West Nile and other mosquito-borne diseases, and had no intent to vilify the Collier Mosquito Control District.

“We understood from the beginning that they do a very important public service,” LaFreniere said. “We wanted to find a solution that worked for both the (Collier Mosquito Control District) and beekeepers alike.”

Although the Blue Rays didn’t place in the top three, they were grateful for the opportunity.

“We got this far,” said Daniel Vandersluis, 10. “I’m happy. I’m very happy with how we did.”

Jay Kittur, 11, said he enjoyed meeting kids from around the world. One team he was particularly impressed with invented a pacifier for cows that suck on the ears of other cows, which can be damaging.

“I thought it was cool that there were a bunch of foreign teams, and so you got to see what the problems are in other countries,” Jay said.

The judges selected a team from Canada to receive the first-place prize of $20,000 for an invention that allows farmers to measure how much water their horses are drinking.

Two runners-up received $5,000. One runner-up from New York invented a system that plays predator calls to deter birds from flying into windows, radio towers or windmills. The other, a team from Louisiana, created a floating island that reduces nutrient load and restores lost floating wetlands.

In addition to presenting their ideas to the judges, the teams met with professional inventors and specialists in prototyping, product innovation, crowd funding and patents.

“We were there to learn and have fun,” said Gabrielle Zappulla, 11. “It wasn’t for anything else; it’s a learning experience.”