VietNamNet Bridge – Two schoolgirls from the northern province of Ninh Binh have presented their idea of making a machine to collect and deal with storms underground.

The10-year-old girls are Dinh Quynh Ngan and Dinh Thi Nguyet Minh from Tran Phu Primary School, in Tam Diep town.

Ngan and Minh surprised their teachers when they presented the idea at the school’s children’s ideas contest, which was launched by the Ministry of Education and Training at all primary schools in Vietnam.

"It's a unique idea because the world has never had such a machine," said Mr. Le Xuan Thang, Principal of Tran Phu Elementary School.

According to the two schoolgirls, the machine has two main parts: the one that is set underground to absorb and handle wind and the other on the ground to collect lightning and transform it into electrical energy. 

During the process of turning their idea into a real model, the two children experienced a lot of difficulties. 

"It's challenging to find active principles for handling storms in the ground because we have not yet studied about power or have deep knowledge of physics," Minh said.

 The model of a machine to receive and process storms won first prize at the children’s idea contest 2016. 

Minh told her problems to her dad, who suggested the schoolgirl learn from the Hoang Cam stove, which was used during wartime in Vietnam. This was a stove intake and chimney system which dissipated smoke from cooking which prevented aerial detection of smoke by American planes. 

More than a month later, under the guidance of teacher Pham Son Thu, the model machine was completed.

The working principle of this machine is once a storm is formed with strong winds, the propellers will absorb wind into the compressed air container. 

In the container, the sensor will measure the wind grade and process the wind in two directions: part of the wind will escape through vents on the ground and the rest will be transformed into power by motors. The lightning rods placed on the ground are also connected to the underground electrical charges to store energy.

The machine is installed close to the sea to limit wind before it flows to the inland, reducing the devastation of the storm. 

The materials used to make the model are inexpensive or from scrap. The total cost for the model is VND500,000 ($22).

The model surpassed 450,000 ideas of elementary school students nationwide to win the first prize of the children’s idea competition 2016 worth VND20 million (nearly $1,000).

Linh Thu