We were pleased with the over 150 national entries we received; and the variety of thoughts on the question. The great bulk of the submissions favored the light bulb; with about 5-10% for the airplane and but a few for the theory of relativity. It is after all what our readers thought.

The winners and prizes awarded are:

• First Place $100 Noah Kurzenhauser

• Second Place $50 Jonathan Leach

• Third Place $25 Randy Ohman

In addition, we decided to award two honorable mention prizes as well:

• Honorable Mention $15 Valeria Pasuizacca

• Honorable Mention $15 Brandon Nguyen

One particular entry prompted our judges to issue a special award for creativity:

• Special Award $75 David Nassar

David’s entry was an ingenious poem which we have reproduced below-

The airplane, the light bulb or relativity
Which is the greatest mark of ingenuity?
First consider the airplane- two brothers so Wright
They invented a vehicle capable of flight
People called them dreamers, and dreamers they were
In Kitty Hawk, they flew in the air like the birds
Next consider relativity- an Einstein to find
That distance and space is related to time
Twin paradoxes, bending space, and even GPS
Relativity explained; mysteries put to rest
Finally, the lightbulb, a bright idea clearly!
I contest it is greater than planes or relativity theory
Relativity claims nothing is faster than light
And without the lightbulb, there’d be no such insight
Einstein’s theory relied on an experiment of his mind
“What if two lights were turned on, what’s the answer he’d find?”
Now when considering the classic question, ” ‘light’ or flight?”
Consider where the airplane would be in the night
Airport runways and red-eyes could never be handled
By rows upon rows of wax-based candles
So of the three inventions one is greater than two
And for this Thomas Edison, we are grateful to you.

Thanks to all who participated! Be on the look-out for upcoming contests.

Thomas Edison said, “I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.”

Time® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Last month we launched an open contest for folks to give us their ideas for what they saw coming in the next 50 years. We received some very interesting thoughts from a wide variety of participants, members of the public, students, teachers … etc. Here now are the winners:

1st Prize – $50
Cassidy Stoneback, Lawrence Middle School
Cassidy envisions a post antibiotic world where bacteria are stopped by manipulating their DNA-basically shutting them on and off.

2nd Prize – $25
Moises Jimenez, Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy
Moises sees computer chips implanted in our heads that allow us to directly watch videos, listen to music, and learn new things.

3rd Prize – $10
Monica Mobley, L&N STEM Academy
Like Moises Jimenez, Monica envisions computer chips in our heads, but she sees us downloading our images to 3-D programming from which we can make models.

Edison would smile over such futuristic thoughts. He was always “pushing the envelope” in all his work. Nice job to everyone who sent us an entry! Stay tuned to our website as more interesting things for you to participate in will be coming. Pass our websites address EdisonMuckers.org and Facebook.com/ThomasEdison along to others so they can participate in future activities-and feel free to send us questions and recommend things you would like to see us address.

Make our website your first stop for all things Thomas Edison. Teachers and educators … check out our websites articles when creating STEM/STEAM lesson plans and Facebook.com/ThomasEdison. More such resources are coming.

Thomas Edison said … “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.