Page 84 - Lighting Magazine June 2018

A 5th grade student’s school project elevates lighting’s Cool Factor with her research on innovation — all she needed was a mentor.
BY LINDA LONGO
Over the past decade, lighting industry vet- erans have fre ed over a racting young people to the eld. Compared to gaming so ware, robotics, and mobile app devel- opment, could a century-old technology
such as lighting hold any appeal for upcoming generations? While her fellow students in the gi ed & talented program at Discovery Elementary School in Kentwood, Mich., chose topics such as prosthetics, cancer research, airplanes, trains, and drones for their long-term research project on “Innovation,” Emela S. [last name withheld for
privacy] believed lighting was a worthy subject.
Her inspiration started at home, where she enjoys read- ing books alongside an LED-powered desk lamp from her dad and loves the “cool lamp that shows a picture of ani- mals as it rotates around” that her mother gave her. Both of the lamps are in her bedroom and among what she consid-
ers to be “inspiring and cool things.”
The previous year, Emela’s long-term Innovation Proj-
ect on bicycles led her to the concept of energy savings. “I learned and researched a lot about e ciency, which is something I focused on for lighting also,” she notes. Be- sides delving into the history of a topic through books, part of the students’ four-month-long research for their Innovation Projects involves reaching out to members of the industry who could help impart knowledge rst-hand.
Emela with her nal presentation at school.
Lighting Star
82 enLIGHTenment Magazine | June 2018 www.enlightenmentmag.com