Carolina helps students envision themselves as STEM innovators through free stories about regular students.
The inspiring students featured in Carolina’s Young Innovators program will surprise and captivate students. They demonstrate the amazing achievements that happen when students take action to answer a question or solve a problem in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). By recognizing and celebrating these Young Innovators’ accomplishments both big and small, Carolina strives to open the door to possibilities—to inspire all students and nurture their visions. Carolina promotes diversity and inclusion to encourage every student to take their place in STEM.
Carolina’s Young Innovators program features a diverse group of Young Innovators, so all students can see someone they can relate to. From their classrooms or remotely, teachers can use the program’s free resources to engage students in learning science. The new Carolina’s Young Innovators website launched with 12 Young Innovator profiles. Every month, one Young Innovator will be recognized to honor their accomplishments. Teachers who know a grades K–12 student who has made an interesting invention or discovery are encouraged to nominate Young Innovators using the recommendation form.
Carolina’s Young Innovators program inspires students and teachers to see that all students can succeed in STEM. The high-interest profiles of Young Innovators are free resources perfect for engaging students in learning science while promoting equity and inclusion.
Meet Carolina’s Young Innovators
Individual profile pages and free downloadable literacy cards for each Young Innovator are available in elementary and secondary reading levels in English and Spanish along with suggestions on how to use these resources with students.
- Six-year-old Robert Samuel (Sam) White III’s inspiring new take on a traditional ABC song encourages other students to think about STEM jobs they could have.
- At age 14, Easton LaChappelle made a robotic hand from LEGOs, fishing wire, and electrical tubing. That innovation led him to develop affordable, accessible prostheses.
- Young children may be safer, thanks to an innovative car seat alarm Joaquin Haces-Garcia created when he was 12.
- Deepika Kurup was 14 years old when she found a new way to purify water to make clean water more available to everyone.
- At age 17, Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna, created a new underwater cement that may prevent oil rig catastrophes.
- When he was 17, Raymond Wang made a device that may reduce disease transmission on airplanes by more than half.
- Ahmed Muhammad wants kids to know that they can do science, so at age 17, he created kits to inspire them.
- Microwave ovens may cook more efficiently, thanks to the containers and reflectors Annie Ostojic made when she was 13.
- Fourteen-year-old Devon and 11-year-old Trevor Langley wanted to make math easier for students with dyslexia, so they teamed up to create a helpful app.
- Girls can code, and at age 17, Olivia Thomas had developed games and workshops that prove it.
- At age 19, Shemar Coombs created an innovation that keeps headphone wires tangle-free, which may be available in stores one day.
