♪ ♪ (water burbling) My name's Anna, and I'm an inventor.

I'm 12 years old and this is my invention.

My invention is a ROV, a remotely operating vehicle, which goes underwater to search for plastics that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

I've always loved the environment and especially the ocean.

But as soon as I heard of the news that there are animals choking and dying because of plastics in the ocean, I wanted to do something to help that problem immediately.

If plastics are not properly disposed of, then they'll get into rivers, lakes, streams, and eventually the ocean.

Over time, sunlight and waves break down the plastic things floating in the ocean into very tiny bits of plastic.

They measure five millimeters or less.

When they get broken down, they sink to the ocean floor.

Fish eat the plastic bits because they think they are food.

The plastic bits fill the fish's stomach and makes it hard for them to eat, which affects how they grow.

I'm concerned about the health of the fish and the health of the entire ecosystem.

My ROV is made out of PVC pipe.

PVC is a type of plastic.

PVC pipes are used for plumbing.

The plastics that I'm using are all reused from leftover plumbing that I had just lying around my house.

I'm using plastic zip ties so everything is secured really well.

I don't want to leave any plastic in water while I'm testing my design.

My ROV has two separate systems.

The first system is the navigation system.

I'm standing on the shore and I'm holding my control box, and there's a tether that goes from the control box to the ROV.

Electric motors with propellers are controlled from the navigation system.

I can move the ROV forward and back, up and down, or left and right to navigate.

And the second system is a detection system and that's the part that actually finds the plastics.

The detection system has a camera that uses infrared light to take close-up pictures of the ocean floor.

My detection system is currently looking at a petri dish filled with sand and different pieces of plastics.

All materials reflect infrared light differently.

I wrote a computer program that lets me see the difference between small bits of plastic and natural things on the ocean floor, like sands or shells, by how they reflect infrared light.

So this is how my detection system finds plastics.

And so, in order for it to cover the entire ocean, in the future I need have an entire fleet of these ROVs, each covering a little area and looking for plastics in that area.

Find the plastics, and then you target that location to clean it up.

♪ ♪ The reason why it's important to clean up plastics is because not only is it catastrophic to the lives surrounding us, it also is devastating to human health and economy as well.

If you have an idea for an invention, then you should brainstorm ideas to make it happen and then build it.

Who knows?

Maybe one day you can build something that will save the world.

♪ ♪