← Outside of the Box
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- [00:01]
A
Christine talks with national STEM champion Elle Salaby about her backpack insert that can help with pedestrian safety on this episode of Outside of the Box.
- [00:09]
B
My project is engineering a design for an insertable backpack system. I sustained many injuries. It was overall a very, like, traumatic experience for me. Sometimes we're able to turn these things into a positive. With pedestrian car accidents being one of the leading causes of death and disability, I really sparked interest in my research and how I could solve this problem overall.
- [00:33]
A
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Outside of the Box. And I'm excited today to continue the National STEM Festival conversation. And I have a student here with me who is a champion for the National STEM Festival that I think has a really great product project that I'm excited to talk about, and that is Elle, who is a 10th grade student in high school who came up with a really, you know, creative problem to a solution that impacted her directly. So welcome to the show, Elle.
- [01:07]
B
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
- [01:10]
A
Absolutely. So I, you know, watched your video for your project and read about it, and, you know, you had unfortunately had a situation where you were struck by a car walking to school, which is sadly too common, I think. You know, we've seen this happen a couple times in the area where I live, and it's just incredible that, you know, there's so many people that just aren't paying enough attention when there's kids walking to school all over the place. Talk to me a little bit about what happened and that process of thinking through, hey, this, you know, this circumstance helped me avoid major injury and how can I do something to help other kids as well?
- [01:58]
B
Yeah. So initially, obviously, it was such a big shock for myself and my family in eighth grade, and during my second semester, I, when I was walking home from school, was hit by a car, as you mentioned, and I was hospitalized for days. I sustained many injuries to both my arms, a leg injury, and it was overall a very, like, traumatic experience for me. And I ended up having, you know, a lifelong cognitive disability from it. But, you know, I don't want to focus too much on the negatives because so often in times like, we can all get caught up in the negatives of our experiences, but sometimes we're able to turn these things into a positive, which is kind of what I did here, because I noticed that it's such a big issue for myself and others, with pedestrian car accidents being one of the leading causes of death and disability among youth and children in the United States. And so I really sparked interest in my research and how I could solve this problem overall.
- [02:58]
A
Well, that's great. I mean, I think that it's important to recognize potential solutions, especially when it's something that you've encountered personally. Talk me through your process of designing this, because, I mean, I know there's been a few things that people have designed for backpacks for different purposes, but this one, you know, was unique to kind of that protection from an impact. So what, what did you go through in trying to make sure that this was going to be the best version of the design that you could make it?
- [03:30]
B
Yeah, exactly. So my project is engineering a design for an insertable backpack system in order to protect children walking home from school. Right. From pedestrian car accidents. And so I went through a couple things in my testing and my designing process. So the first thing I did was essentially get all my old school backpacks and a couple other backpacks I could find. I cut open into them and I observed what kind of padding or protection that they had in them. And I noticed that the less expensive ones often had no padding whatsoever, no protection for the back, and some of them had a very small foam liner, but it was not at all adequate. Whereas the more expensive backpacks like my own tended to have thicker padded liner. And so this created not only an issue overall, but also an equity issue because it disproportionately affects those in poverty who may not be able to afford these higher end school supplies. And especially when my doctor told me out of the hospital that the reason why, luckily I did not sustain such more traumatic injuries to my body itself was the fact that my spinal cord was protected by my own backpack. And so after this first step of cutting into them, I then decided to test different padding liners. And the way I did this was through simulated trials. And I did multiple test trials, finding out what exactly the best measurements and the best thickness would be. And essentially what I came to the conclusion of is that the optimal design for my backpack was 1/2 inch thick with 12 by 15 inch measurements in order to cover the full area of a back, because it's in line with backpacks. And I found out that this would be the most adequate for protect students walking home from school.
- [05:17]
A
Well, that's amazing. Now, what? Talk me through your process of, like, entering this as part of the National STEM Challenge, because, I mean, you know, it's great to design something, but it's even better to kind of put it into this type of, you know, competition where you can get stronger visibility on what you're trying to do and, you know, possibly, like, collaborate with other people who have similar ideas. So tell me about your decision to, like, sign up for this and about hearing that you had been chosen as a STEM champion.
- [05:55]
B
Okay. Yeah. So when I first decided to enter into the Stem Fest competition, I had already entered it as my science fair project. But when I decided to do this, essentially, I heard about it a year ago from an Instagram post, and I actually was a STEM Fest champion myself last year as well. And so when I entered it this year, I was like, I knew I wanted to do it again because it was such an amazing opportunity and experience for me last year. And after completing it, I was very excited. I knew that I really had hopes of getting to make it to DC once again. It was such an amazing experience last time, and when I actually opened the email and I found out that I did make it, I was so stunned and so excited, and I really couldn't believe it, because I just couldn't believe that I was chosen once again. Like, it was just so amazing.
- [06:45]
A
And actually, now that you mentioned that, talk about the. Because I don't think that I've ever gotten a chance to talk to any of the students post festival, so really talk about the experience of that and getting to meet kids from across the country who have also come up with amazing projects and kind of that. That networking and getting to meet people in the industry and all of that, because I think that's one of the most amazing parts of it.
- [07:13]
B
Yeah. So, like, first meeting kids who were around my same age who shared, you know, this love for STEM was so amazing. It was so wonderful to see all these different projects. And it honestly really inspired me and myself to keep working on different projects and, you know, keep exploring things and keep my creativity alive. And the fact that I got to meet so many different connections is just so amazing for myself because I think it's so often that you're surrounded by the same people every year. At least for myself. I've gone to the same public school in the same town for my entire life, pretty much. But the fact that I was able to travel out of my state, go to D.C. and meet all these people, I thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. But luckily I get to do it once again, which is so amazing. And then in terms of, you know, all the industry professionals that I got connected with and I got to talk to, it was so amazing because you really got to understand and hear working job experience, as well as their own experiences with applying to college. What they did in high school in order to advance their different careers. And I also got to heard from a lot of people with different careers within STEM itself, because I am very. I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with my future. I think I might explore a little bit more about policy and how STEM can interconnect with that. And it was just so amazing seeing all these different perspectives and opening myself up to a lot more options that I previously hadn't even considered.
- [08:40]
A
Yeah, and I think that that's a really good point to talk about, too, because something that I've previously talked to Carrie about, you know, Carrie Byron, is that STEM is more than just a couple of different fields that you can go into. STEM is actually way broader than most people think of, and that really opens you up to a lot of possibilities, kind of thinking through that. I mean, is there any. Any areas that stand out for you that you're kind of leaning towards? Maybe that's the thing that I want to do. Because you're still, like, you're still young. You still have a couple more years of high school left to go.
- [09:16]
B
Yeah, yeah, I'm a sophomore, so, you know, I got two more years before I have to make my final decision. But right now, I really sparked my interest in engineering with this project because obviously I have my own prototype that I developed. And, yeah, so I would like to look at engineering, but I'm also kind of exploring law and, like, the legal field because I participate in mock trial. And so overall, I'm really interested in how policy intersects with STEM and, like, what we learn and how science can inform a lot of the policy decisions that leaders make and a lot of our choices for what we advocate for within our own laws. And. Yeah, so overall, I think that I'm exploring a lot of different pathways in life. You know, I'm an advanced chem right now, but I'm taking AP Bio next year, and the following year, I plan to take AP Environmental Science. So that's kind of like a broad range that I'm covering. So I'm excited to just see wherever my future leads me and where I go, so.
- [10:14]
A
Well, that's good to hear that you're exploring a few different avenues, because I think that's a good place to be at this point in your high school career to not kind of set yourself in one direction just yet. Now, I want to talk a little bit about just, you know, because it sounds like you're very passionate about stem. Is this something that you were interested in, like, before the situation happened with the accident, because I don't think that, like, something like that just happens, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I want to create this thing. Usually there's some, like, love of it before that that leads you to want to do something like that.
- [10:53]
B
Yeah. So actually, I've been competing in the STEM Festival since I was. Or not the STEM festival, sorry, in the science fair since I was in Kinderg. So I've always had this interest in stem, especially at my school district. I think it really promotes a curiosity within kids, and a lot of the science classes are very promoted in my school culture. And so I was really excited always to compete in the science fair. You know, my first science fair in kindergarten, I did a project about plants, and I got a blue ribbon. So after that, I was like, I'm set. This is what I'm going to do. And I've competed in that ever since. And in addition to that, the National STEM Festival last year was a great opportunity for me, and it only keeps continuing my love of STEM and within school as well. I love my advanced chem class. It's one of my favorite classes on my schedule. I like learning about the periodic table and mole ratio.
- [11:46]
A
So, you know, well, that's really awesome that you love that stuff. And one thing that I want to wrap up on, because especially since this is your second year doing it and the National STEM Festival has only kind of continued to get bigger, it's going global, and I think that that's something that's really exciting, so especially with you being interested in, like, you know, policy and things like that. I mean, policy obviously affects our country, but it can also affect things globally as well. When you think about everything that's connected into stem, how do you feel about the STEM Festival going globally and getting to involve kids from everywhere in the world to kind of come together and solve these big problems that we have.
- [12:34]
B
So the fact that the STEM Festival is going globally is so great because it provides students like myself an opportunity to hear from all different types of perspectives, from different cultures and diverse thoughts, and people who might have insights that I'd otherwise not considered at all. And so I'm so excited to hear about these global perspectives, what these projects are, and maybe they could solve different problems which are unique to their own countries or their own cultures or where they're from. But overall, hearing from people globally will allow me to engage myself with more perspectives, which I'm so excited for. And in terms of policy, I think that it's best when our policymakers are able to consult with as many people and as many different perspectives as possible. And so I can learn stuff myself from doing so as well.
- [13:22]
A
Well, that is amazing. Yeah. I'm very excited for you to get the opportunity to once again go back and do this. So, you know, for those that are watching or listening to this, please support, you know, everything that the National STEM Festival and Explore Media are doing. There's lots of resources. I think it's really important and obviously, like, El, you're a great example of that and why, you know, why it's important. There's a lot of problems and we need, like, to put all of our thoughts together to resolve these issues for everybody. So that's awesome. Well, I wish you all the best of luck and I hope that you truly enjoy your time at the festival.
- [14:08]
B
Thank you so much. I know I'm going to have such a great time at the festival and thank you so much for having me on. I enjoyed this so much.
- [14:15]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And for anybody that's watching, please make sure that you, like, share, subscribe, comment, engage. You know, put this, put this content out there, just blow it up all over the place because I think everybody needs to hear about these amazing kids and what they're doing. So stay tuned and we'll see everybody next time on the show. It.