The top 10 finalists from across the country of the 3M Young Scientists Challenge presented their projects on Monday at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"What I essentially created was this gel that's able to remove and degrade microplastics in water," said finalist Sheyna Patel from Orlando, Florida.

The students, in grades five through eight, are tackling real-world problems.

"Which, essentially, how this works is that the microplastics have this negative kind of charge, and I designed this hydrogel to have this positive charge, and when these opposite charges come together," said Patel.

The gel absorbs the plastics, which, when removed, cleans the water and the environment.

"I created the Flavo Peel Cup, which is a cup made out of fruit peels that I created to do th

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