High-school girls create desks that produce electricity, power classrooms

Wouldn’t school have been a lot more fun if you could tap your foot around on the floor while sitting at your desk and create electricity?

Well, that could be the reality for kids in the near future since 10 high-school girls from Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC, teamed up to develop a method of producing electricity simply by tapping their feet under their school desks.

After receiving a $10,000 grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program that aims to inspire new inventors, the team of girls has begun developing a prototype of the Green Renewable Current Desk System (G.R.I.D).

“In order to get a good education, one of the basic foundations is electricity,” team leader Rose DelleFave told NBC News.

How it works

The system will consist of a series of six connected desks in a grid arrangement. Under each of the desks there will be a pedal like ones you’d find under a sewing machine.

Electricity-producing desk drawn by the team. (Image via Providence Day School)

If you were ever in school, maybe you were one of the kids that tapped their feet continually. If you were, or remember listening to your classmates’ incessant taps, then you can see how easy it would be to get kids to tap on the pedal during their lessons.

As the pedal is stepped on, the flywheel turns and produces the electricity.

“All of the generators will be charging an absorbed glass mat (lead-acid) battery and the energy stored in that battery can then be used to power lights or a fan or whatever the classroom needs,” DelleVale told NBC about the project.

The girls envision that the power-producing desks can be taken to schools in South Africa and Tanzania, where electricity is scarce. The first school they would like to donate their invention is a school in Red Hill, South Africa, where select Providence Day School students travel each year.

Providence Day School innovators. (Image via Providence Day School)

The team is now working with an engineer from machine and innovation company Doosan Infracore to bring the concept to life.