Teen inventors hope to ease water carriers' burden in Third World

Published: 2006-01-03

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Who says there's nothing new under the sun? Not the 10 seniors at Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis who came up with an idea that earned them a grant from Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program. "It's a water transport/treatment apparatus" that would make hauling and purifying water easier for people in undeveloped countries, said Julie Sutfin, physics teacher at Nerinx Hall, an all-girls school sponsored by the Sisters of Loretto. The students' proposal resulted in a $7,800 grant from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program to support development of the project. Nerinx was one of only 18 schools in the country awarded a grant. Some of the students working on the InvenTeams project plan to major in science in college, but others are interested in political science, international business, accounting and languages, said Sutfin. "But they're all highly creative and motivated and smart in many different ways," she said. "It's really fun to work with them."

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