 
|
|||||||||
              
|
6-year-old's invention for children in hospital puts him in hall of fame
Wednesday, March 22, 2000 By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Correction/Clarification: (Published March 23, 2000) Judges for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Regional Invention Convention on Tuesday did not know that Spencer Whale or Brandon Whale had been inducted into the National Gallery for America’s Young Inventors. A story in yesterday’s editions mentioned only that the judges were unaware of Brandon’s achievement.
As he watched parents push IV poles behind children playing on toy cars at Children's Hospital, 6-year-old Spencer Whale figured there had to be a better way.
To find it, Spencer went to work on a design for attaching IV poles directly to the toys.
A year ago, that design won him a monthly Student Ideas for a Better America award. And on Saturday, Spencer, now 7 and a second-grader at Northway Elementary School in Ross, was notified that he had been chosen for induction into the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors in Akron, Ohio.
He is among only seven young people chosen for the honor. He also is the youngest ever chosen and the second member of his family so honored.
In 1998, his brother, Brandon Whale, then 8 and the youngest inductee, was chosen.
"I was very excited, and I'm still excited," Spencer said about the honor yesterday as he exhibited his project at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's 12th Regional Invention Convention.
His invention was among 217 projects in the competition that was conducted at Duquesne University.
"I'm proud of him," said Brandon, now 10 and a fourth-grader at Northway. His invention also was entered in yesterday's competition. It is a tension ball decorated to look like a beetle, which patients can squeeze to pump up their veins before an intravenous needle is inserted.
"I knew sooner or later somebody was going to beat my record, and I'd rather it be my brother than anyone else," Brandon said.
Both boys won first-place awards for their grade levels. Dave Rauth, a retired Westinghouse Electric Corp. engineer who coordinated the judging, said the judges were not told about Brandon's previous achievements.
Brandon and Spencer's mother, Danette Rocco, has a pacemaker, and she uses an electrode bracelet to transmit vital heart data to the hospital. But the standard bracelet was too big. Brandon found a way to modify the bracelet for small wrists and to enhance its conductivity.
Brandon's work influenced Spencer, Rocco said.
"He couldn't wait to be old enough for the Invention Convention," she said.
North Hills School District holds a competition yearly, and as a first-grader last year at Northway Elementary, Spencer was eligible.
In his eagerness to make things, he began his research several months before the school competition began.
His mother got permission from Children's Hospital for Spencer to observe and survey children, parents and staff.
"We wanted to see if we could help anybody," Spencer said.
What he noticed was the tangle of tubes and feet as adults pushed IV poles behind children as they rode the play cars in the activity rooms.
"Sometimes it takes a child's innocence to see things," his mother said.
Spencer went to work modifying the play cars. There was a lot of trial and error, finding the right way to secure the poles to the mostly-plastic toys and a way for them to bear the weight of the medical equipment.
He had a lot of help along the way, which he documented in his logbook. Step 2 Corp. in Streetsboro, Ohio, donated a couple of play cars. Workers at Duquesne Light Co. did the actual welding, working from Spencer's instructions.
He also decided to decorate the IV poles with bright colors because he read about colors at the library and learned that "bright colors make people happier."
"Dark colors don't make them happy," he said yesterday as he held onto an IV pole covered with red, white and green electrical tape that was attached to a bright yellow toy car. "The [hospital] IV poles were dull and boring."
"As every teacher knows, ideas come from somewhere and have to have guidance from a teacher, an administrator, a mentor," said Leila Gay Evans, executive director of programs at the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors.
Evans said it was obvious, from the misspelled words in the logbook and from the step-by-step photographic documentation, that Spencer did most of the work.
She said Rocco played an important role by encouraging her sons and teaching them to think about ways to help other people.
The winners in the gallery's young inventors competition were chosen by a student board of directors. About a hundred applications are sent out every year and as many as 80 are returned.
It's very competitive, Evans said. To be eligible, an invention must have won a national competition, received a patent or show proof of marketability. They are judged on creativity, feasibility, marketability and benefit to society.
"Something about his invention appealed to the board," Evans said. "It was not just a toy, but something that helped other people. There was so much altruism in that."
Spencer tested his prototype, which he calls KidKare, at Children's. It got rave reviews.
Michele Brancato of McKeesport praised the invention in a letter to the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors. Her 4-year-old daughter, Samantha, got to see it.
"Spencer created the coolest car my daughter had ever seen. The car was equipped with an IV pole that was brightly covered, unlike the drab ones the hospital supplied. The car allowed Samantha to roam around the halls without me running along beside her. ... Samantha loved the fact that mom wasn't constantly saying, 'Watch you don't pull out your IV,' and I loved the independence and freedom it created for her. As a former medical professional, I can't believe an adult never thought of this before."
Rocco is gathering discarded IV poles and lining up welders so Spencer and other youngsters can build more of the KidKare cars this summer.
Staff writer Carmen Lee contributed to this story.
|
||||||||
