Whiz Kid: Sixth-Grader Creates Ear Savers for Medical Workers

Will Tozour

While many people spent their quarantine time binge-watching Netflix and Hulu, Avalon Elementary School sixth-grader Will Tozour was creating ear savers for essential workers.

Will’s mom, Laura, is a labor and delivery nurse at Cape Regional Medical Center. One day when she came home from work, she showed him the clip she had to wear to protect her ears while wearing P95 masks all day. Will believed he could make a better clip using his 3D printer and began sketching designs until he made one that worked. He ran into a few challenges, such as the connectors not connecting correctly, and they would slide off easily, but eventually managed to create a clip that provided a comfortable alternative for essential workers.

Additional challenges included Will’s small 3D printer, so he had to make each part of the ear saver separately, which he says, “Actually worked out nicely because it would fold down to pocket size.”

The first fully completed ear saver he created for his mom was personalized with her name. But Will did not stop with just one, he created personalized ear savers for his mother’s coworkers, her other nurse friends, and his aunt who is a doctor in New York.

Will first began 3D printing after he took Tony Tomasello’s technology class.

“He taught me how to use Tinkercad, which is the site I used to design the ear savers,” Will says. “The first thing I printed was a 3D lighthouse.”

From there, Will loved it so much he begged his mom to get a 3D printer at home to begin his many creations. While quarantined, Will also printed a miniature R2D2 robot, a small catapult, and an elliptical gear. He is currently working on some new projects as well as enjoying the start of summer, which means meeting up with his friends and surfing.

Laura Tozour wearing the ear saver.

The 3D model mockup of the ear savers.