Future entrepreneurs, or CONN-trepreneurs as they are known, in grades kindergarten through fifth were tasked with developing a problem and coming up with a solution. From there, students presented before their peers. Their peers then judged the best ideas to be presented for a panel. The Shark Tank, as it is known.
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A few kindergarteners gathered in the Media Center of the elementary school. Some were shy, but some were not. One boy said that his idea, along with his partner, was a device they called the "Swimmee".
"Something to help people swim, if they don't know how to." he said.
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Six groups of students voted best in their class present, among them, a trio of fifth graders.
Eric Walkins explained his group's idea.
"We have a problem where a lot of people lose their clothes," he said.
He said clothes get lost at sleep overs and on the bus. In their presentation, his group showed a picture of the lost and found with a mound of lost clothes.
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Madison McCoy said the name of their invention is the Gigachip. The concept of the Gigachip is simple: an app and a chip. The inventors say that users just attach a chip to your clothes and the app keeps track of your favorite shirt.
"So once you get the chip into your clothing, there's a code, and you enter that code in the app, and that's your code forever," said Madison.
Other ideas ranged in variety. The older kids made prototypes while the kindergarteners stuck to drawings.
Vanese Clough is one of the multiple panelists judging the inventions.
"They look at how it's made, what goes into it. They get a glimpse at the cost that might be involved," she said.
Conn Magnet Elementary School is located in Raleigh. The focus of the school is Entrepreneurial design.