Parsippany, NJ, elementary students win invention contest with dog booties

[Donna]

A group of Parsippany elementary school students will be making the rounds of New York City news shows today to talk about a biodegradable dog booties invention that won them first place at the Student Inventors Day competition at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. Green Paws, the student's invention, is a set of dog booties made of biodegradable materials like yard waste, paste and rubbers, that slip over a dog's foot, protecting paws from injury while walking, but also keeping dogs from tracking mud and dirt into the house after being outside.
"It felt amazing. This is like one of the best moments of our life," said Littleton School fifth grader Aytana Muschajew, 10. "First place was completely unexpected." Aytana was one of 11 students in Littleton School's gifted and talented program who participated in the first-ever inventors competition for elementary school kids sponsored by the museum and TeleBrands, a Jersey-based consumer products company and creator of the "As Seen on TV" logo.

Littleton School was one of more than 100 student groups that applied to participate in the event this summer. Competing for a chance to win a scholarship for their schools, only 20 groups were chosen to present an environmentally friendly consumer product before a panel of judges, including Liberty Science Center President Emlyn Koster and TeleBrands CEO and founder, A.J. Khubani.

Khubani's company has promoted such "As Seen on TV" items as the PedEgg and Pasta Boat.

Under the guidance of gifted and talented program teacher Terrie Murphy, two teams of Littleton students entered inventions: Team Green Paws and Team Size-Up.

Team Size-Up invented a padded sock that would allow kids who are in-between shoe sizes to wear large shoes comfortably.

Team Green Paws — made up by students Samaya Pattim, Tara Kakkaramadam, Jeremy Thomas, Arjun Nagendran, Aytana and Rishi Yagappan — won the grand prize, taking back to their school a $1,000 check and having the opportunity to talk about their idea on Fox 5's "Good Day New York" and ABC's "New York Nightly News" with Chuck Scarborough.
Green Paws was an idea that Khubani thought was sellable.
"I thought it was the most marketable idea," said Khubani, who wanted to partner with the museum for the event to encourage kids to "think outside the box."
Teacher Terrie Murphy celebrated beside her students Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm so proud of them," she said. "I'm so glad that they worked this hard and they won." When asked what they think the prize money for their school should be used toward, Green Paws team members had varying opinions.

Fifth-grader Samaya thought the money should be used to bring back the Spanish program that was cut at the school. But Arjun, who modeled Green Paws after his dog Rocky, wants the money to be used to host science fairs at Littleton.