When most of us were fifteen years old, we didn’t exactly have the capacity for invention, let alone innovation. Not so for Ann Makosinski, a 15 year old student from Canada. In order to complete her school science fair project, Makosinski went a step beyond creating an electromagnetic friction balloon or a baking soda volcano, and instead created a body heat powered flashlight.
But this wasn’t just for your run of the mill High School science fair, this was for the Google science fair, which is much more prestigious and really does encourage innovation for participants who range from thirteen to eighteen years old. According to Makosinski, her aim was to “…create a flashlight that runs solely on the heat of the human hand.”
If that isn’t impressive for a fifteen year old, it’s unclear what would be, and Makosinski’s innovative invention received Google’s attention. Google awarded a $25,000 scholarship to Makosinski, for her interest in harvesting sustainable energy, and it seems that it is well deserved.
