Alabama teachers are urged to apply for Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow STEM national competition. Public schools between grades six through twelve are eligible to compete.
Classes are to show how STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) can be applied to improve a problem in their community. The competition has been running since 2010, and Samsung has collected more than $2M in prizes this year.
Ann Woo is the director of corporate citizenship at Samsung. She explained why this competition is a great opportunity for schools.
“The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition is unique in that it complements what students are already doing in school. But [it] really takes what is a very applied approach to solving problems with knowing how STEM works and how STEM can improve lives and communities around us,” said Woo.
She said the competition challenges students to look out of their classroom and see what's going on in their communities and come up with ways they can fix it.
Students will gain hands-on experience in the contest, and the finalists will receive one-on-one mentorship from Samsung employees.
Woo said the application process takes two minutes, and teachers fill out the initial application.
“It's three simple questions about what a team of students might want to embark on. Based on that initial entry, we then pick subgroups. This is a general call to entry,” she explained. “We’ll have state finalists and state winners, national finalists and national winners.”
Woo said after applying, teachers will receive free professional development opportunities from Samsung and access to education platforms.
“We can't wait to read the applications, and we have a team here that reads every single entry to learn more about the problems that are going on in communities and the ingenuity that students bring to solve them,” said Woo.
There is no interview process, but if a school becomes a national finalist, then there is a live in-person competition.
“Samsung underwrites the entire experience and allows students to meet others from different parts of the country and present[s] their project to judges to see if they can be one of the three national winners,” said Woo.
There are different tiers of prizes that a school can win if they get past the first round.
300 schools will be picked as State Finalists, which includes a prize package of $2,500 in Samsung products and classroom resources. As the competition continues, 50 schools will advance and be selected as State Winners. This includes a $12,000 prize package of Samsung products and classroom resources.
Within the 50 State Winners, one winner will be selected and receive the Rising Entrepreneurship Award with a $25,000 prize package, and one winner will be selected for the Sustainability Innovation Award which includes a $50,000 prize package.
The competition will continue, and ten schools will advance as National Finalists. This includes a prize package of $50,000 and a trip to a location that hasn’t been determined.
The final three schools will become the National Winners, and each receive a $100,000 prize package of Samsung technology and classroom resources.
Applications to apply close on Friday, October 27th.