Times are dry in California, which is finishing its fifth consecutive year of drought. Cynthia Chen, 14, began to wonder what she could do to help. After doing a little background research, she found out that 80 percent of the water people use in California goes to farming. So Cynthia — now in ninth grade at the Harker School in San Jose, Calif. — decided to attack the problem by building a water-saving seed pod that keeps seeds moist until they sprout.