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(water burbling)
My name's Anna, and I'm an inventor.
I'm 12 years old and this is my invention.
My invention is a ROV,
a remotely operating vehicle,
which goes underwater to search for plastics
that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
I've always loved
the environment and especially the ocean.
But as soon as I heard of the news
that there are animals choking and dying
because of plastics in the ocean,
I wanted to do something
to help that problem immediately.
If plastics are not properly disposed of,
then they'll get into rivers, lakes, streams,
and eventually the ocean.
Over time, sunlight and waves
break down the plastic things
floating in the ocean
into very tiny bits of plastic.
They measure five millimeters or less.
When they get broken down,
they sink to the ocean floor.
Fish eat the plastic bits
because they think they are food.
The plastic bits fill the fish's stomach
and makes it hard for them to eat,
which affects how they grow.
I'm concerned about the health of the fish
and the health of the entire ecosystem.
My ROV is made out of PVC pipe.
PVC is a type of plastic.
PVC pipes are used for plumbing.
The plastics that I'm using
are all reused from leftover plumbing
that I had just lying around my house.
I'm using plastic zip ties
so everything is secured really well.
I don't want to leave any plastic in water
while I'm testing my design.
My ROV has two separate systems.
The first system is the navigation system.
I'm standing on the shore
and I'm holding my control box,
and there's a tether that goes from the control box
to the ROV.
Electric motors with propellers
are controlled from the navigation system.
I can move the ROV forward and back,
up and down,
or left and right to navigate.
And the second system is a detection system
and that's the part that actually finds the plastics.
The detection system has a camera
that uses infrared light
to take close-up pictures of the ocean floor.
My detection system is currently looking at
a petri dish filled with sand
and different pieces of plastics.
All materials reflect infrared light differently.
I wrote a computer program
that lets me see the difference between
small bits of plastic
and natural things on the ocean floor,
like sands or shells,
by how they reflect infrared light.
So this is how my detection system finds plastics.
And so, in order for it to cover the entire ocean,
in the future I need have an entire fleet of these ROVs,
each covering a little area
and looking for plastics in that area.
Find the plastics, and then you target that location
to clean it up.
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The reason why it's important to clean up plastics
is because not only is it catastrophic
to the lives surrounding us, it also is devastating
to human health and economy as well.
If you have an idea for an invention,
then you should brainstorm ideas
to make it happen and then build it.
Who knows? Maybe one day you can build something
that will save the world.
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