Belleville students compete for $100,000 award

A team of students from Belleville High School was one of 50 teams from public schools across the country to be named state winners in the 13th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national competition.

Each state winner receives a prize package of at least $12,000 in technology and school supplies – with further awards for teams that continue to advance in the competition, according to a press release from Samsung.

The annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition challenges public school students in grades 6-12 to explore the role science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects play in addressing issues of vital concern in their local communities, the release said.

Participating students engage in active, hands-on learning that can be applied to real-world problems – making STEM more tangible and showcasing its value beyond the classroom. The winning schools were selected from a pool of 300 State Finalists who submitted detailed lesson plans outlining how their students propose using STEM to address an important community issue.

“Every year, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow entries provide a unique snapshot of the concerns and issues on the minds of America’s students – identifying what they perceive as pressing community issues they want to help solve,” said Ann Woo, senior director, corporate citizenship, Samsung Electronics America.

“This year, what stood out for us was how frequently global issues of environmental sustainability found relevance in a local community issue our students wanted to address. Fully a quarter of all submissions fell into that category, followed by safety issues for schools and communities, water conservation, and mental and physical health,” Woo said.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow will culminate in three schools being selected in May as National Winners who will receive $100,000 in prize packages consisting of Samsung Technology and classroom supplies. Overall, $2 million in prizes will be awarded during this year’s edition of Solve for Tomorrow.

Calls to Belleville High School seek- ing information about the participating students and their project were not returned.

As the state winners continue their journey toward the nationals, each will receive a video production kit from Samsung to help document their STEM project. State winners will be required to submit a three-minute video demonstrating how they are using STEM to address the issue raised in their lesson plan.

Samsung employees will serve as mentors and be assigned to the state winners on a one-to-one basis to help guide teams as they develop their projects and build a prototype.

The Belleville students will need to submit their project videos for review by April 5.

Based on those video submissions, the field of 50 will be whittled down to

10 national finalists who will pitch their project to a team of judges during an inperson event in May.

Solve for Tomorrow’s judges will name three teams National Winners, each of whom will earn a prize package worth $100,000. The seven other National Finalists will each receive a $50,000 prize package.

In addition, one of the 50 state winners will be honored as the Sustainability Innovation Award Winner, receiving an additional $50,000 prize package of eco-conscious classroom technology.

The general public will be invited to vote online for one Community Choice Winner and Samsung employees will name one team as this year’s Employee Choice Winner. Each of those honors earns the winning school an added $10,000 of technology on top of their national winnings, the release said.