Middle-school students nationwide are challenged to stretch their imaginations to design and create an invention made with rubber bands for the first Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors. The contest, open to students in grades five through eight, is hosted by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS), The University of Akron and its Akron Global Polymer Academy (AGPA), all based in Ohio.

Sponsored by Alliance Rubber Co. of Hot Springs, Ark., and administered by the National Museum of Education, coordinator of the BubbleWrap® Competition for Young Inventors, the contest commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Rubber Division, ACS and the 100th anniversary of the world’s first rubber chemistry course, offered at Buchtel College (now The University of Akron).

A major component of entrants’ inventions must involve rubber bands. As a complement to the contest, AGPA is releasing educational resources to enhance teachers’ science and social studies curricula. These standards-based lesson plans focus on physical science, science and technology, scientific inquiry, natural resources and rubber history.  The AGPA also is releasing a suite of multimedia learning elements, such as video clips, animations, and games, that can be used in coordination with these lesson plans. Educators can access these resources at www.rubberbandcontest.com or at the AGPA’s P-16 Science Education Web site at www.agpa.uakron.edu/p16.

To enter the contest, students should submit a completed official entry form; a sketch of the invention; and an essay of 1,000 words or less explaining the invention’s use, how it works, its need or benefit to society and how the idea for the invention was formed. The deadline for entries is Nov. 14, 2008. Complete contest entry rules and details are available at www.rubberbandcontest.org.

Fifteen semifinalists will be chosen in this national competition. From this group, three finalists will be honored at The University of Akron on Feb. 14, 2009, when the top prize winner will be announced at a special ceremony.  The grand-prize winner will receive a $10,000 savings bond, and the second- and third-place winners will receive $5,000 and $2,500 savings bonds, respectively.  Each finalist’s teacher or mentor will receive a $500 gift card. The 12 remaining semifinalists each will receive a $50 gift card.