Jessica Mullen (11), Josh Smith (11) and Tia Marson (11) from Maltby Comprehensive School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, have designed a set of solar powered blinds with a charger point, which has been short-listed by Comet in their Green Gadget of the Future Competition. Maltby Comprehensive School has beaten over a hundred other gadget entries and is now up against just four schools, in a bid to win £20,000 worth of energy efficient equipment.

As part of the Year 7 Design Technology classes, pupils researched and discussed a range of green issues, before coming up with their gadget designs. The solar powered blinds with charger point, designed by the three classmates, was a huge hit with the judges at Comet. The design concept is simple – the sun powers the blind and also creates electricity to charge any product that can be connected to the charger, such as a mobile phone or MP3 player. The innovative design harnesses the power of the sun in a bid to save energy at home.

Bob Darke, Commercial Director at Comet says:

"Short-listing the entries to just five has been extremely difficult as the standard has been astoundingly high. Comet’s Green Gadget of the Future competition has shown that kids really are the country’s environmental campaigners of tomorrow and are capable of designing gadgets that we may well see in our home in 20 years time".

Jason Bradbury from Channel Five’s ‘The Gadget Show,’ the Energy Saving Trust and Comet will all debate the final entries and crown one school the overall winner of the Green Gadget of the Future competition on December 10^th 2007. The most innovative and ‘future friendly’ design will receive £20,000 worth of energy-efficient electrical equipment from Comet’s Green Collection.

The Green Gadget of the Future competition, which kicked off in September, invited pupils in Year 7, aged 11-12 across the country, to design the environmentally friendly gadgets of tomorrow. Each school had up to eight weeks to submit their design.

See below for the five short-listed schools:

• Hillside High School, Merseyside
• Giggleswick School, North Yorkshire
• Seaford Head Community College, East Sussex
• Blakewater College, Blackburn
• Maltby Comprehensive School, South Yorkshire

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