GLANDORF, Ohio (WLIO) - A dynamic duo of seventh graders at Glandorf Elementary School is shooting for the stars with a class project.
Neeley Felkey and Hallie Beining were the winners of the Ohio STEM Learning Network’s annual Design Challenge. They were tasked with building a design that would help sustain life on the International Space Station as well as on Earth. Felkey and Beining developed a dehumidifier filtration system to efficiently use water and other liquids. Their design was selected as the middle school winner for northwest Ohio. After speaking with astronauts and conducting their own research, they discovered a problem on the ISS and put their brainpower to work.
"We were really interested in water and we found out that there was a lot of extra water on the ISS, so we thought that we would make something to kind of get rid of that water and re-use it," said Beining.
"We found out that there was a problem of mold and water floating around and damaging the electrical equipment," said Felkey. "We made a dehumidifier to take in that water and some how re-use it and put it through a filtration system."
The girls also provided a brief walkthrough of how their design is applied.
"Water would mostly go in through the dehumidifier and filter through the filtration system into here, which would heat it and get out all the extra germs and then you can reuse the water for drinking and making food," the girls demonstrated.
The seventh-grade team from Glandorf was one of 21 schools in the state invited to Columbus on March 11th to showcase their projects to NASA leaders and astronauts.
