STEM-In-Action Fall Follow Up: STEMper Tantrums

Welcome to the fourth edition of our STEM-In-Action Grant Fall Follow Ups, where we check in with our 22-23 STEM-In-Action Grant winners to see what they've accomplished since NJ&EE! The U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) awards five STEM-In-Action Grants of up to $5,000 to eCYBERMISSION teams wishing to further develop and implement their projects in their communities. Today, we're excited to hear from 8th-grade (now 9th-grade) team, STEMper Tantrums. 

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About Us

We are the STEMper Tantrums, a trio of 9th graders from Chantilly HS. We possess a great passion for science and have participated in science competitions since we were in 3rd grade. Ashrita likes playing softball and piano; Anika enjoys playing basketball and painting; Symphony likes ballet and creating fashion designs. We all live in Northern Virginia and like to hang out frequently.

How We Got Here

Why eCYBERMISSION

In 7th grade, Symphony did a different eCYBERMISSION project on the topic of  sugarcane and really liked the process of eCYBERMISSION compared to other STEM-based organizations. Due to this, she wanted to do eCYBERMISSION again in 8th grade and spoke to many people to form a team. Eventually, Symphony helped to involve Ashrita and Anika with eCYBERMISSION forming the STEMper Tantrums team.  

Our Community

1 in 2 US families cannot afford diapers (National Diaper Bank Network). Symphony volunteers with a local organization called She Believes In Me that is dedicated to helping less-fortunate people in our community. In addition to having monthly events that help children with struggling families, She Believes In Me also distributes food, supplies, and diapers to these families. She Believes In Me receives these diapers through donations and unfortunately none of them are environmentally friendly as most are Pampers or Huggies diapers. In the past we have done an eco-friendly diaper drive through our school to temporarily solve this problem. Therefore, we plan to make our diapers able to permanently solve this problem.

Our Solution

Disposable diapers are the third-largest single consumer item in landfills (CrossRiverTherapy). Our proposed solution to our problem is to make an eco-friendly, cost-efficient, and good quality disposable diaper. We realized that the disposable diapers that the majority of people tend to use are not eco-friendly and, additionally, are not affordable for many families. Popular diaper brands like Pampers and Huggies use plastic in their diapers. Plastic takes about 500 years to decompose. This takes a huge negative toll on the environment. Therefore, we wanted to create a diaper that is compostable and possible for less fortunate families to afford.

How We Innovate

What We’re Doing with Our STEM-In-Action Grant Award 

Through our STEM-In-Action-Grant award, we plan to make a manufacture-ready diaper designed to be environmentally friendly, affordable, and well performant. Our STEM-In-Action Grant implementation plan consists of 4 main aims. Our first aim would be to do extensive research to strengthen solution possibilities. Our second aim would be to build components for solutions and testing. Our third aim would be to test and finalize our prototype solution. Finally, our fourth aim would be to prepare for proper manufacturing of the final prototype.

Off to a Fun Start

Most recently, we have been conducting a literature review to optimize the materials that go into our diaper design. We have divided our areas of focus into key areas to address our product goals: Anatomy & Physiology (Symphony), Business/Economics (Anika), and Biomaterials/Environmental Science (Ashrita). This will allow us to make sure the diaper is safe for babies, will be marketable and affordable, will be safe for the environment and readily degradable. Additionally, we have  conducted interviews with researchers in the field of polymers specialized for diaper absorbance and eco-friendly fabrics including Dr. Ryan Chan (Tethis representative), Dr. Venditti (NCSU Department of Forest Biomaterials), and Dr. Ford (Wilson College of Textiles ). 

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The STEMper Tantrums sure have done their homework! We are so impressed by how well-thought-out their plans are, and are excited to see how their idea grows when we check back in this spring.

eCYBERMISSION registration for the 2023-2024 competition is open at www.ecybermission.com/register, and Mini-Grant applications are are open until November 16 at www.ecybermission.com/minigrantprogram. For questions about eCYBERMISSION or help with registration, email missioncontrol@ecybermission.com.

Faith Benner

Sr. Communications and Marketing Specialist