One of the goals of any school is to provide their students with the skills they need to move forward confidently in the world and instill in them the belief that if they work hard and work hard, they can achieve any goal they set .
This is a daunting task for any school, and it becomes even more challenging when students must contend with vision and hearing impairments. Students at the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls are proving that “different abilities” are not a barrier to academic achievement, even at the highest levels.
In December, international tech giant Samsung announced that a student team from the School for the Deaf and Blind (MSDB) had entered the state finals of the 2023 STEM competition to develop technologies that have the potential to solve real-world problems affecting the communities in which they live.
“A common theme this year is ‘connection,'” explained Michelle Crossan-Matos, Chief Marketing, Citizenship and Communications Officer, Samsung America. , peer-to-peer, intergenerational and even global connections. In fact, one school’s entry was based on its connection to a school in Ukraine – proposing a solution to provide solar power to students in a war-torn community. “
Teams of high school students attending the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind compete against more than 1,000 high school classes to secure one of 300 qualifying spots in the national competition. In addition to the MSDB team, three other Montana high schools advanced, including teams from Helena Capital High, Missoula Sentinel High and Whitefish Middle School.
“The competition is fierce,” said MSDB teacher Erin Barr, who organized the school’s submission to Samsung. “Some classes continue to work on the same project for years. Some have a different project every year.”
The MSDB team of four (soon to be five) students and Ms. Barr, who are state finalists, have won $2,500 in technology and classroom supplies for their school. If they advance to the national finals at Samsung, they will have the ultimate chance to win a $100,000 technology award for their school.
This isn’t the first time students at the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind have received three stars for their intelligence and academic achievement. In 2020, a team from MSDB won the Montana State Championship, earning MSDB $15,000 in supplies. This is the first time Barr has entered the technical team to participate in the competition.
“It was amazing that year to see how far $15,000 could go,” she said. “Technology is changing fast and it’s hard for schools to keep up, especially when it comes to teaching visually impaired students. There are so many accessibility features in technology for our children and it’s really important to be able to keep up and make sure they have access to it. “
The 2020 award allowed MSDB to acquire 10 portable Chromebook laptops, begin developing a 3D printing program for the school, and stock the school’s lockers with essential classroom supplies to advance education for all students in the school.
The exact focus of this year’s Samsung project by the MSDB team is “sort of top secret.”
“It’s an interior classroom safety product that can be used in any type of school,” Barr revealed of her students’ proposal. “It’s not just for schools with deaf students. It’s not just for the visually impaired.”
The secrecy, Barr said, was to offset the possibility that any other team among Samsung’s competitors could steal MSDB’s ideas.
“The police department could end up being a great partner in this,” Barr hinted. “We’re not at that stage yet. Now we’re going to get into the research phase of it, where students figure out who they need to talk to and what materials we need to collect.”
This type of social interaction, engaging with the public, learning how to find the information you need, and learning how to communicate professionally with community leaders are all part of the benefits of participating in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for them to go out and understand how to engage with the public,” Barr said, “and also to let the public know that these students are just like everybody else. They might have crutches, they might have cochlear implants, But just like everybody else, they’re going to shop in our neighborhood, they’re going to get a job in our neighborhood, they’re going to have a family.”
Human interaction, how to locate needed information, how to engage with community leaders are all part of the learning experience. These are skills that all high school students should develop, but apply more specifically to those with alternate abilities.
“It’s important to develop these skills as a student rather than going out into the real world not knowing how to find a person or the information you need to do something,” Barr said. “Even if it’s just a phone call. Kids these days don’t know how to call to gather information or talk to someone in authority. How do you frame a question? How do you send a proper email to make your request a little more formal?”
The MSDB team has now entered the second phase of the Samsung STEM competition. Students are now asked to submit lesson plans detailing how their proposed STEM projects will address identified community issues. If successful, the MSDB team will receive a $20,000 prize to enable them to develop a prototype of the product they wish to submit.
“You have to have the actual thing,” Barr explained of the contest’s process, “and if it makes sense, you can send them a prototype, or you can send a smaller model prototype so they can see what it looks like.”
The competition also asked students to create a three-minute video explaining their product, what it does, how it benefits the community, and any potential environmental impacts. This portion of the competition is expected to be submitted by the end of January.
Winning or not, the mere experience of competing gives students who enter the competition a distinct advantage, especially when it comes to personal confidence.
“A lot of our students — I would say more than the typical high school student — tend to be more uncertain about these exchanges,” Barr said of the benefits of the Samsung STEM competition. “It’s so important to work on building it. Seeing the strength of someone building some of those skills is life-affirming.”
“Sometimes they see things through the lens — I’m visually impaired,” she admits. “Other times it’s just — I’m just a normal kid like everybody else — and they just want to be your normal student and belong.”
“They all have different abilities just like everyone else,” Barr added, “and learning to work with each individual’s different quirks — being able to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses is also very important.”
To date, Samsung has provided $24 million in technology and instructional materials to nearly 3,000 U.S. public schools,” said a company press release. “Solving Tomorrow’s impact has been so high that it has expanded into Samsung’s renowned Global Citizenship program Electronics is now operating in 33 countries around the world, reaching more than 2.1 million students worldwide. “