| Winners in North Dakota |
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by Charles Gitter Innovation and entrepreneurship are alive and thriving in the youth of North Dakota thank to Marketplace for Kids and the Marketplace/Northern Plains Invention Contest. Marketplace for Kids Education Days offer encouragement for developing young entrepreneurs and provide young people with a forum to present and explain projects which demonstrate their entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. The next logical step for many of these students is to see how far they can take their invention and the Marketplace/Northern Plains Invention Contest give them the platform on which to build. The Marketplace/Northern Plain Invention Contest was held January 13-14, 2009 in Bismarck, ND in conjunction with Marketplace, North Dakota's premier economic development conference. Special awards categories for youth - age 14-18 and youth age 13 and under are presented. The top youth inventions this year were diverse and creative in their use and design. Some were fun-oriented while others were useful for work-related activities. MacKenzie F. A. Melby Many of these products begin as science fair projects. The "Smart Trailer's" inventor, MacKenzie F. A. Melby saw jack-knifing of trailers as a problem and decided to design an apparatus to fix it. He said, "The Marketplace/Northern Plains Invention Contest in Bismarck gave me a chance to receive a lot of advice and ideas of where to take my project next." He also plans to develop and hopefully sell a full-scale version within the next year. Adam Schreiner Adam Philip Schreiner invented "Taco Tape." He said, "I had to come up with a science fair project and we were discussing ideas over supper one night when I realized what a mess my little sister was making with her taco." He also had a lot of fun at his region's Marketplace for Kids Education Day in 2008. He said, "I brought some friends and this year they want to participate too." His future plans for "Taco Tape" are to get a patent for it and then try to sell the idea, but not the patent. Benjamin Longlet Benjamin John Longlet, thinking about winter-related conundrums, created the "Heated Pet Waterer," a 5-gallon insulated container that doesn't allow freezing, even in sub-zero temperatures. North Dakota is definitely the right place to market this ingenuous Pet's Best Friend. Jonah Eslinger Jonah B. Eslinger for instance, realizing the difficulty that many people have every year during the holiday season, dreamt "Deck the Roof" into reality. This innovative method to decorate the house and trees, or to make brightly-lit shapes to enhance the season, enables the process without the tangles, twists, and hassles commonly associated with this activity. |