What started as a toilet joke may propel a team of ten middle school students to the Global Innovation Award competition in San Jose, California. Students at Oak Ridge Middle School in the Linn-Mar school district are nominated for their work developing a toilet that can store and deodorize urine to later flush fecal matter, reports the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Students say about 30 percent of a household’s water consumption goes to flushing; the Ecommode uses 85 percent less water than a traditional toilet. The team will learn if they attend the Global Innovation Award competition later this month.
