Today there are over 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24. That’s a larger youth population than at any other point in our history. They’re all glued to the TV, playing their video games and deciding where to hang their new Justin Bieber poster – right? Wrong. Okay, maybe that’s your kid, but there are some amazing young minds out there that have already proven that the world’s future could in fact be a whole lot brighter than the sight of an Xbox controller covered in Hot Cheeto dust. California boy Shubham Banerjee is a seventh grade whiz kid who used his Legos to build a braille printer. Typically costing around $2,000, Banerjee’s model costs $350 (for the Legos and a minimal toolkit from Home Depot), making the technology more affordable and available to the blind community. Kids are showing grownups easy and practical ways to save money more often than you’d think. Fourteen-year-old Suvir Mirchandani of Pittsburgh published a study that demonstrated how the U.S. government could save 234 million dollars a year if they simply changed their font type. By switching to Garamond, a font that uses thinner strokes for its letter, less ink would be used. The Government Printing Office has taken Mirchandi’s work under review. Kids are also finding new ways to use technology in everyday life. High school students Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson have had it up to here with non-cooperative condiments. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. The waitress brings you that nice juicy burger, you grab the ketchup bottle as your mouth salivates and the ketchup comes out in a blast of watery slop. Not ideal. The boys used CAD/CAM software to engineer a cap that separates the liquid from the actual ketchup. While this isn’t the cure for cancer, it’s still incredibly exciting and resourceful. These kids are using tools available to the average student to create amazing things – imagine what they could do if we decided to further invest in their abilities and learning opportunities. By supporting STEM educations programs like Project Lead the Way or Goldie Blox, a company that creates toys to stimulate future innovators and break down gender divides in the STEM field, we can see the number of young inventors and inspiring creations multiply.
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