Turning Your Idea into Reality with Glass

Hosted by: The University of Texas at Austin Chemistry Department Glass Shop

2024 STEM Girl Day Glass Shop Imaginary Invention Contest

Calling all K-8th graders: Do you have an idea for an imaginary invention that can solve a real problem in our world? Imagine an invention that will solve a real problem in our world. What would the invention look like? How would it work? What will it do? 

Participants will use no more than one page or piece of paper to draw and describe their invention idea, how it works, and/or what problem it is solving in our world. A team of scientists and artists will select one idea from STEM Girl Day at UT Austin submissions and will bring this idea to life as an artistic glass sculpture to be debuted at STEM Girl Day 2024 on February 24, 2024.

Submit your invention ideas by Friday, January 5, 2024, to wistem@utexas.edu. Include the following in the email:

  • Attachment of the K-8th grade participant invention idea on no more than one 8.5x11 size image/paper. Submit the invention idea as a picture or PDF. The invention idea should include a the invention's name, the student's first name (ONLY first name), and a picture and/or description of the invention, how it works and/or what problem it is solving in our world.
  • Student first and last name. Note that last name will never be shared publicly.
  • Student grade.
  • Student school and city.
  • Adult first and last name.
  • Adult email address.

The announcement of the selected invention will be included in the STEM Girl Day eNewsletter sent on Friday, February 16. Be sure to register for STEM Girl Day to receive the eNewsletter and contest results.

2023 Summer STEM Girl Day - Glass Shop Imaginary Invention Contest

Thank you to everyone who submitted their creation for the Summer STEM Girl Day Glass Shop Imaginary Invention Contest! Our review team of scientists and artists had a very hard time selecting the winners from the 35 submissions.

  • Arya | 1st Grade | Tornado Zapper
  • Chizaram | 6th Grade | The Water "Pure"ifyer
STEM Girl Day Glass Shop Imaginary Invention Winners - Tornado Zapper and The Water "Pure"ifyer

These amazing works of art and imaginative inventions will be turned into artistic glass sculptures and will be on display during STEM Girl Day at UT Austin 2024.

All other submissions will be included on the 2024 STEM Girl Day Glass Shop Imaginary Invention Contest People's Choice Award ballot. Visit the Glass Shop at STEM Girl Day 2024 on February 24, 2024, to see all the artistic inventions and vote. 

Check out Invention Ideas from Past Years

Find photos and videos of Invention Ideas from STEM Girl Days on Flickr.

STEM Girl Day Glass Shop Imaginary Inventions on Flickr

Learn More about the Glass Shop

Without glass, the world would be unrecognizable. It’s in the eyeglasses on your face, the lightbulbs in your room, and the windows that let you see outside. From the lenses of telescopes used to discover other worlds to the glassware used in chemistry to the optical fibers used to transfer information across continents, glass has also been critical to scientific discovery. Here at the UT Glass Shop we continue to enable world-class research through scientific glassblowing. You can usually find us fixing broken glassware and making complex apparatuses for researchers. Today though we thought we would showcase the immense engineering needed to create one of the most common glass-containing items we encounter every day: the light bulb.

Although many believe that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he was not the first to show that light could be produced by passing electricity through a filament (a thin wire). Edison’s light bulb was the first that could be used long enough to be adopted for widespread use lasting up to 1,200 hours (50 days) before burning out. The next major milestone was replacing Edison’s carbon filament with a tungsten filament that lasts up to 10,000 hours and is still in use today. The filament is surrounded by a glass bulb and all of the air is removed from inside the glass bulb to protect the filament from burning out. Glass is used because it is transparent and can withstand the high temperature of the filament which can reach 4,500°F (10 times hotter than your oven at home).

How does this activity connect to STEM?

  • The light bulb is a great example of the engineering needed to light our world and was a major milestone in human development.
  • Incandescent light bulbs like the one we are making today are not used as much now because more energy-efficient alternatives are used like LED light bulbs.
  • While light bulbs are made by large, automated machines in factories, our journey of making one by hand showcases the range of skills needed to make such a simple item.
  • Skills we are using today include scientific glassblowing, machining of filaments, chemistry and electronics.

More about the UT Glass Shop

The Glass Shop at UT is located in Welch Hall (WEL) 2.146 and is staffed by Adam Kennedy. We create, repair, and modify various glass instruments for departments throughout the university. This can be as simple as fixing a small crack, or as complex as collaborating with scientists to create an entirely new design and building it from scratch. While most people think we make beakers and test tubes, scientific glassblowing is much more complicated than that requiring a great deal of planning and experience to make the apparatuses needed. The work we do here enables UT research amongst a broad range of disciplines.