Middle & High Students Use STEM to Solve Issues Impacting Their Local Communities:

Environmental Sustainability, School Safety, Water Conservation & Mental Health

Samsung Electronics America today announced that 50 teams of students from public schools across the country have been named State Winners in the 13^th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national competition. Each State Winner will receive 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. The full list of the 50 State Winners can be found here.

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. 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. Notably, about half of the State Winners are from Title 1 schools.”

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

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 once again serve as mentors. They will 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.

Ms. Woo emphasized the mission behind the competition, saying “Samsung Solve for Tomorrow provides schools and teachers with an innovative, problem-based learning approach to STEM education. At Samsung, we inspire the world and shape the future with transformative ideas and technologies. Our business is all about igniting the next generation of innovators and changemakers. None of that would be possible without the STEM disciplines, and a STEM-savvy workforce. Solve for Tomorrow’s goal is to boost student interest, proficiency, and diversity in STEM. And hopefully encourage them to pursue STEM careers. This new generation of State Winners shows that we – and America’s public schools – are achieving those objectives.”

Next Steps

• State Winners need to submit their project videos for review by Wednesday, April 5, 2023 by 11:59 p.m. ET.
• 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 in-person event in May.
• Solve for Tomorrow’s judges will name three teams National Winners, each of whom earn a prize package worth $100,000. The seven other National Finalists each receive a $50,000 prize package.
• In addition, one of the 50 State Winners will be honored as our Sustainability Innovation Award Winner, receiving an added $50,000 prize package of eco-conscious classroom technology.
• Broadening the reach of the competition, two more honors will be awarded to teams that reached the National Finals. The general public will be invited to vote online for one Community Choice Winner and Samsung employees will name one team 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.

More information on the competition and competition phases is also available at: www.samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow.

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