Middle Schoolers Invent Mold Meter to Fight World Hunger

Imagine spending your entire school year building something that could actually change the world. That's exactly what 140 sixth and seventh graders at Mabry Middle School in Cobb County just did.

At the school's annual InVenture Night, 70 student teams unveiled inventions they'd spent four months researching, designing, and perfecting. One standout creation called "Mold Meter" tackles global food waste and malnutrition by detecting spoiled food before it gets thrown away.

"We put four months of hard work in it and our product is important because it lowers the GDP and decreases malnutrition in the world," said Aashi, one of the young inventors behind Mold Meter. Her team didn't just build a gadget. They conducted patent research, market surveys, and expert interviews like real entrepreneurs.

Dr. Ingle Larkin, who oversees the event at Mabry, explained that students learn the complete invention process from concept to presentation. They're not playing at innovation. They're doing the actual work that professional inventors do every day.

Board of Education Vice-Chair David Chastain joined dozens of parents, teachers, and staff to witness the student presentations. "It's not only cool, but also amazing to see the ideas these 6th and 7th graders come up with," he said.

The Ripple Effect

The impact of InVenture Night extends far beyond one middle school gymnasium. At least four Mabry teams will advance to compete against K-12 students statewide through Georgia Tech's prestigious InVenture Prize competition.

Winners from that round earn spots on the national stage, where Mabry students have already made their mark in previous years. These young inventors are learning that their ideas matter and that middle school students can create solutions to real-world problems.

The program teaches students that innovation isn't reserved for adults with fancy degrees. Sometimes the freshest solutions come from twelve-year-olds who haven't yet learned what's supposedly impossible.

Tomorrow's inventors are already hard at work today.