Broward School Board recognizes White House Science Fair teenagers

Northeast High School students design bike that filters water

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Broward County School Board recognized two high students who participated in the 2013 White House Science Fair.

Payton Kaar, Kiona Elliot, Northeast High School Principal Jonathan Williams, and their science teacher received a huge round of applause Tuesday morning. President Barack Obama honored the students from Northeast High School on Monday.

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They designed a bicycle-powered, emergency water-sanitation station that filters E. coli and other harmful pathogens from contaminated water. It can be assembled and disassembled within an hour and can produce enough water for up to 30 people during a 15 hour period.

Kaar and Elliot received a 2012 InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program, which supported their development of the innovative design.

"It really didn't help me that I'm about to present something we worked on to the president of the United States until I was in the White House setting up our invention right there," said Kaar.

"We just thought we were doing something that we considered fun and challenging and entertaining and that we thought might help some people but we didn't actually think it would actually take us to the White House," added Elliot.

The teenagers hope to secure a patent for the device.