Ames Flying Monkeys Expect to Meet Obama Today

A group of Ames Girl Scouts who attend  and a school in Gilbert will meet President Barack Obama in Washington today during the White House Science Fair.

Gaby Dempsey, Mackenzie Gewell and Kate Murray will present their team's prosthetic hand device that won the first Global Innovation Award at the FIRST LEGO League science and engineering challenge.

The team, Flying Monkeys, started working on the device they call the BOB-1 in 2010. They began their project knowing that they wanted to do something with prosthetic devices, inspired by the story of a a Georgia girl born without fingers. The BOB-1, a contraption of plastic, a pencil grip and Velcro, allowed the girl to write for the first time, according to a release from the White House press secretary.

Obama's fair celebrates the winners of various science, technology, engineering and math competitions across the country as part of Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign.

The BOB-1 beat out 200 other entries in the FIRST LEGO League competition, winning the girls $20,000, which was used to patent the device and create an updated model.

This is the second time the Flying Monkeys have been in Washington D.C. The team was there over the summer where they were recognized by the U.S. Patent Office, as originally reported on ABC news.

The girls were featured in White House Photo of the Day Monday. A photographer caught them reading in the White House's Red Room.

The girls also won the Heartland Red Cross Young Heroes Award and were finalists in the 2011 Pioneer Hi-Bred Iowa Women of Innovation Awards. They've also earned scholarships from College of Engineering, and the Iowa and U.S. houses of representatives have also recognized the girls' accomplishments.