Jan. 31 (UPI) — A Kansas high school student’s use of spare locker space is going viral thanks to a video showing his finished project — a fully functioning vending machine.
Blake Hawkins, 17, a senior at Valley Center High School, posted a video to YouTube showing his chemistry teacher demonstrating the soft drink vending machine the student built in his school locker.
Hawkins, who detailed the process behind the invention on the website Instructables, said “The Soda Locker” was inspired by the extra space in his school locker.
“With so many schools moving to electronic devices for books, lockers become less of a space for your books, and more of a question of: ‘What am I going to do with this?'” he wrote.
Hawkins said his invention proved popular with his fellow students, selling up to six 75-cent cans of soda during each class break.
“I think most of it is the novelty that you’re buying a pop from a vending machine inside of a locker,” he told KWCH-TV.
He said school administrators made him shut down The Soda Locker because it violates school rules, but he is working on reaching a deal to operate the vending machine with proceeds going to a school club or program.
