Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Applications Now Open

Teachers of grades 6-12 in the United States are invited to apply for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest. This contest challenges public school students in grades 6-12 to address a local community issue using their STEAM skills (science, technology, engineering arts, and math). Solve problems and win.

Colorado Students Engineer a Prosthetic for a Veteran

This blog post is sponsored by Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. All opinions are my own.

One of the national winners from the 2015-2016 program was a group of middle school students from Colorado. They engineered prosthetic enhancements for a veteran in need. Their mission was to build a comfortable and safe prosthetic for a veteran they knew. The veteran, Kyle Kelley, came in for an interview and measurements. They won a share of $2 million awarded nationally to community-improving STEAM projects around the country.

Many other winners have done amazing things including:

Classroom furniture for those with special needs
An EV Charging Station
A smartwatch app to warn pedestrians of oncoming traffic
A Hiking safety app

This contest is a fantastic way of helping your students use their skills to improve the world and win technology equipment for your school.

How does the contest work?

Entry Period (now through Nov. 9): Teachers from across the country complete the Solve for Tomorrow online application with an idea about using students’ STEAM skills to positively impact their community.
First Round (Nov. 22 – Dec. 6): Samsung announces 255 state finalists selected to submit a lesson plan for how their proposed STEAM classroom project will improve their community.
Second Round (Dec. 13 – Feb.22): Samsung announces 51 state winners (total including the District of Columbia). Each school receives $25K in technology and a technology kit to produce their presentation video.
Third Round (Mar. 1 – 25): Samsung announces 10 national finalists to receive $50K in school technology and a trip to the Pitch Event. Online voting for the Community Choice winner begins.
National Winners (Early April): 10 national finalists present their prototype to a panel of judges. Samsung announces three national winners who will each receive a $150K technology grant for their school, plus a Community Choice winner who will receive an additional $15K in technology for their school.

Refer People and Enter to Win

New this year, Samsung has created a referral giveaway program to get all public school employees involved. While only teachers of 6th-12th grade may enter the contest, employees at U.S. public schools can refer their educator colleagues to complete a contest submission and they will be entered for a chance to win a Samsung Galaxy Note8 or Samsung 65” TV. Teachers must name their referrer in their application, and Samsung will randomly select five referral winners.***

***Not open to the general public: No purchase necessary to enter or win. Open to employees at eligible schools in the fifty (50) United States/DC twenty-one (21) years of age or older. To enter/official rules: share the Contest with other educators by directing them to www.Samsung.com/Solve to complete the application form including referral fields with all required information. Referrals may come from teachers, administrators or faculty members. Sponsor: Samsung Electronics America, Inc., 85 Challenger Rd., Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 Void where prohibited. Ends 11/9/17.

Last Year’s Winners

To get some examples of the winning projects, here are last year’s winners.

Selected 2016-2017 National Finalist Schools and Projects

These are some of the finalists as selected by Samsung to give you examples of projects they have selected in prior competitions.

School	Location	Project Overview
Beebe Junior High School	Beebe, Ark.	Designed and built a robotic car seat to alert adults when children are left in hot cars
Snowflake Junior High School*	Snowflake, Ariz.	Created a low-cost wildlife detection system to alert drivers of animals crossing the road and mitigate accidents
Gulfport High School	Gulfport, Miss.	Created a vending machine to supply free hygiene products to the homeless
Gering High School*	Gering, Neb.	Developed a drone-powered spraying system to target weeds and use fewer chemicals on crops.
Pinkerton Academy	Derry, N.H.	Created an app that helps youth get support anonymously when bullied in school
John P. Holland Charter School	Paterson, N.J.	Created a safety app to track students’ route and call for help if needed when walking to school in high-crime areas
Secondary School for Journalism*	Brooklyn, N.Y.	Created an app that helps students in need get an after-school meal from local restaurants that might have otherwise gone to waste
Ross High School	Hamilton, Ohio	Created an emergency notification app to detect and alert faculty and first-responders of any suspicious activity in schools, such as an active shooter
Crownover Middle School	Corinth, Texas	Built temporary natural disaster relief housing for those in need
Pineville Middle School	Pineville, W.Va.	Designed a website connecting students in need with donated food, clothing, and other living necessities.

*National Winner

How do we apply?

Applications are open until November 9, 2017. Apply online for consideration.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored blog post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies that I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.