MOSCOW - Learning disabilities and other problems may someday be history if young scientists like Victoria Goodwin, 9, and Taryn Olson, 10, keep dreaming up solutions that know no boundaries.

"The 'Clarity Clip' is supposed to help kids with learning disabilities," Victoria said.

"It's a computer chip that goes on a hairclip or a belt buckle, and it unscrambles people's brains who have learning disabilities or can't understand things properly just because they have a learning disability," Taryn said. "It connects the pathways in your brain."

The Hayden Elementary School fourth-graders and inventing colleagues exhibited the goals, blueprints and process of designing the "Clarity Clip" at the 2015 Invent Idaho State Finals at the University of Idaho Friday and Saturday, where students vied for a $1,000 U of I scholarship and the opportunity to display their inventions in the Idaho State Capitol Building for Invent Idaho Day on March 16. The young ladies' functional and fashionable invention was in the Jules Verne category, which is reserved for inventions that may become a reality in the future when technology finally catches up.

For Victoria and Taryn, figuring out exactly how the "Clarity Clip" would work is a scientific mystery yet to be solved.

"Technically, if it just touches your body, but that's the reason we made it in Jules Verne, because we didn't know how it worked," Victoria said.

"We didn't think it was possible to actually understand how the brain works and know what you're thinking and unscramble it," Taryn said.

But trial and error is all a part of the scientific process, Invent Idaho co-founder and president Beth Brubaker will emphasize.

"It's a process of problem solving, not just about the awards," Brubaker said, between tasks and coordinating prior to the award ceremony Saturday. "It's beyond that."

The 2015 Invent Idaho finals featured 155 inventions from students in first-through-eighth grades, plus one high-schooler, making it the largest Invent Idaho final competition in its 26 years.

"What I was most amazed about is the high level of problem that these students are tackling," Brubaker said. "They care about others in their world. There are special needs inventions. There's one over here, they're thinking about sleep disorders and trying to help people with sleep disorders. How many times do middle-schoolers think of that?

"The quality of the projects has taken an amazing leap forward," she said, quoting one of the competition judges.

Students from across the state displayed their inventions on tables in the International Ballroom. They were grouped into five categories: Jules Verne, adaptations, games and gadgets, working models and non-working models.

From dolphin communication apparatuses to ways to keep small children close to their moms to helping disabled people become more independent, the vision of the young inventors was limitless.

Working model best of category winner Eliana Van Cor, 12, of Sandpoint, used her compassion for horses as an inspiration to invent.

"Well, my goal was to help horses so they don't get frostbite in their mouths, and I used leather instead of metal," the Forrest M. Bird Charter School sixth-grader said.

Eliana's invention to make riding more comfortable for winter cowboys and their equine counterparts is called the "Western Winter Bridle." It utilizes leather in lieu of metal to fashion a horse bit. Her exhibit included pictures of her mare, Stormcrow, and a 3D example of the leather bit.

"It's just more comfortable for the horse," she said.

Mullan Trail Elementary School second-grader Lily Barton, 7, of Post Falls, thought way outside the box with an invention called the "Electrain," a Jules Verne design that would allow trains to fly and would not pollute the environment.

"My favorite thing was getting to work with my mommy and daddy," she said.

"She came home with her folder filled with ideas," said her mom, Kim Barton. "She chose this one because it wasn't invented yet. She said she came up with it because she wanted to save people's lives."

Info: www.inventidaho.com/?page_id=89 or www.facebook.com/InventIdahoToday