Staff photo / Allie Vugrincic Austintown Intermediate School fifth-grader Christian Henrik ties a plastic bag together while working on a Club Invention “Flight Sights” project after school. Students were challenged to come up with ways to help them jump higher using balloons, garbage bags, pipe cleaners, tape and other supplies.

AUSTINTOWN — Austintown fifth-graders Ashlee Martinez and Ena Borky had a creative idea on how to propel themselves higher when they jump: The pair blew up balloons and attached them to their feet with pipe cleaners.

“So the air will come out and we’ll go higher,” Martinez said.

The students were part of a group of 22 fifth-graders learning about force through the after-school Club Invention. At the club’s first meeting last month, students were challenged to build a device to help them jump higher.

Austintown Local Schools was awarded two grants from the National Inventors Hall of Fame through a donation by the Nordson Corporation Foundation, allowing the fifth-grade club to be created, as well as a Club Invention for second-grade students.

Intermediate teacher Alicia Burnfield, who led the fifth-graders through experiments, said she chose “Flight Sights,” from a list of possible STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — challenges because it deals with forces, which students learn about in fifth grade.

Burnfield gave students supplies such as balloons, plastic bags, pipe cleaners, tape and foam plates to work with. She said before students designed their devices, they measured a specific type of unaided jump. Then, students did the same kind of jump with the help of their devices and compared the results. She said the project included making a diagram and keeping a journal.

“It fits into the scientific procedure,” Burnfield said.

The grant provided for fifth-graders to participate in five 90-minute club sessions, according to Austintown Director of Curriculum William Young. In other sessions, the students will create three-dimensional maps, and design and fly large paper airplanes as they explore force, he said.

At Austintown Elementary, 19 second-graders participating in a Club Invention program called “SOS Endangered Earth” measured the distance at which they could smell a pine air freshener as they learned about a bear’s sense of smell. The students were then challenged to “bear proof” different spaces, such as parks and homes.

Second-grader Victoria Williamson, who also participated in a STEM summer camp through Austintown last summer, said she likes participating in the invention camps because she gets to be creative.

“I love creative stuff, ‘cuz my dad is an artist,” Williamson said.

She said at the summer camp, students made robots, played games and designed superhero costumes. Williamson said she wants to continue to do creative activities and hopes to one day become an artist.

“To me, it sounds really cool. I just like that kind of stuff,” said second-grader Giovanni Testa of Invention Club and the summer camp.

The second-graders will participate in eight shorter sessions as they continue to design safe animal spaces, Young said.

Students who showed an interest in STEM fields were selected by teachers and invited to join the clubs, which per the grant have a cap of 22 students.

National Inventors Hall of Fame programs have encouraged students to explore their creativity and innovation through STEM activities and real-world challenges, fostering a lifelong interest in inventive thinking.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com