5TH Graders Design Improved Military Helmet (Video)

Platts Energy Week ^ | February 16, 2012 | Mike Hydeck

[JerseyanExile]

We made two stops for this Cool Schools report: Leesburg, Va. and the White House. A team of fifth graders came up with an invention so impressive, the President of the United States even noticed!

Learning about the war in Afghanistan could be pretty daunting and the graphic scenes can be scary, but for these 11 year olds, it was a motivation to do something positive.

Jack Dudley, a student at Stone Hill Middle School in Ashburn, Va. told us, "Our inspiration for the project...Specialist Robert Warren lost part of his skull in an IED blast in Afghanistan."

Virginia 5th graders Jack Dudley, Sydney Dyyanni, Jovia Ho and Abby Porter started to look for ways to reduce traumatic brain injuries on the battlefield.

Abby Porter, who attends Harper Park Middle School, shared, "We took ideas from people, and we did a lot of research on out own."

They invented the "Heads Up Helmet" with new technology to improve existing head gear for troops.

Jack Dudley explained, "We used over lapping polyethylene plates to distribute kinetic forces."

Belmont Ridge Middle School student Sydney Dayyani added, "These microlayers are filled with shock absorbing gel."

[JerseyanExile]

The students website is here, and at the "Heads Up" tab, there's a five page detailed description of the helmet. Looks pretty impressive. DARPA should start writing out some checks!

http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/30n/index.htm

[SueRae]

Outstanding!!! Way to go, kids! And their teacher.

[Perdogg]

Does it come with a barf bag?

Sydney Dayyani was excited to meet the President: "I could believe I actually got to meet him in person. I thought I was just the average girl."

[blueunicorn6]

Yeah, but can you take a field bath with it? The old steel pot was good for helping get the funk off you. The kevlar? Good protection, absolutely worthless for bathing. Now, if those kids could design some underwear that would give you a bath.....

[Tenacious 1]

"I couldn't believe I actually got to meet him in person. I thought I was just the average girl."

And so the indoctrination begins....

Otherwise, a cute story. I hope they never lose that spirit.

[ken5050]

Their next project..design a football helmet that redcues the risk of concussion..

[geologist]

'60 minutes' program, highlighted a young girl ... Asian living in America, and she came up with a very important discovery having to do with nanos .... some how they would be absorbed by cancer cells. The nanos carried the medicine directly to the cancer itself and thus not hitting the entire body with the serious side effects of the medicine.

Wonderful and amazing.

[Jack Burton007]

All it takes to impress the current president is a gun that shoots marshmellows so I wouldn’t have put that in my article if I were trying to show how impressive this was.

[org.whodat]

All true, it is a long road of failures between an ideal and something that will actually work in the real world. We long ago proved you could take a few thousand layers of plastic wrap and stop a bullet with it.

[publius321]

He loves to exploit children. I wonder if he tried to cajole them into the next Obama quior of school children.

I can hear them now singing “Obama’s gonna save us, Obama’s gonna re-arrange us... red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight...”

Just like the old days http://youtu.be/WtGrp5MbzAI

[luvbach1]

Begs the question, will anything be done with the kids’ idea(s)?

[luvbach1]

Obama, Obama, ummm ummm ummm!

[cizinec]

Don’t need to anymore. Baby-wipes/Hooah-wipes do the job with less water. The pads in the kevlar get nasty fast, though. Use the canteen cup for shaving.

[blueunicorn6]

I salute you, sir! Any man who can shave with a canteen cup is a warrior!

[cizinec]

“I salute you, sir! Any man who can shave with a canteen cup is a warrior!”

ROFLOL. I said that all wrong, but now I have to pretend like I meant what I actually said.