RICHMOND, Va. -- About 4,000 people die from drowning every year, according to the CDC. Three third graders from Powhatan County, Virginia hope their award-winning idea changes that.
Mason Tovar, Kolby Nguyen, and Scotty Staylor, all third graders at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot School in Powhatan County, spent several months creating "The Life Saver."
It's a drone that could be used by lifeguards or other first responders to locate someone who may be drowning.
The students' mock-up shows a drone with lights, a 360-degree camera, and technology that could pinpoint someone's exact location.
"If people are in trouble in the ocean or pool, the lifeguards can send the drone up and find them with a camera, and then drop life jackets or push them down with a rope, and people can put them on, and then the drone can lift them up with the rope and take them to shore," Tovar said.
The students worked on the project for about four months.
Their idea won them the Toshiba/NSTA Exploravision science challenge for K-12 students, their team being one of only 24 in the nation to make it this far.
"I didn't think we were going to win because that's just never happened before," Tovar said. "I don't think anything crazier than that has ever happened to me before."
They're not the only students in their class who are science stars. Their classmates' ideas also placed in the top 10 percent of the competition.
In June, the three will head to Exploravision's national competition and if they place, they could win $10,000.
But it's not the money that made them draw up ideas for a drone.
"We want them to know that we can help the world," Tovar said. "Lives matter more than money."
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