Leominster Sixth Graders Win National Contest For Their Helmet Design

LEOMINSTER (CBS) -- Three sixth graders who set out to create a helmet to  prevent concussions, have won a national contest sponsored by the U.S. Army.

The trio was one of four teams to win the contest.

After having a friend suffer a concussion as the result of a sporting accident, the students; Eric Jenny, John Liddy and Christopher Mabie decided to come up with a solution.

The team came up with five different helmet designs to test, and a contraption to test the helmets.

The sixth graders used their data to make a prototype that was a hybrid of two of the previous tests. The prototype's data produced better results than the other models.

The students shared their results with a helmet manufacturer and a neurologist whom both stated the students should continue exploring their idea.

Each member of the national winning teams received a  $5,000 savings bond and $1,000 awarded to them as state winners and $2,000 as regional first-place winners.

The contest was called eCYBERMISSION and challenged students to identify a real-world problem and come up with a solution.