Deaf and Blind School team claims state title in STEM competition

A team of high school students attending classes at the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind (MSDB) has been selected as the State Winner for Montana in the 13th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) competition. It’s another achievement for the team, who secured one of 300 coveted spots in the nationwide competition last January.

“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.

When Samsung announced in January that the MSDB team had been selected as a state finalist the team’s academic advisor, teacher Erin Barr, was reluctant to describe the project the students were working on.

“It’s kind of top secret,” Barr said at the time. She explained that the secrecy was meant to offset the chance that other teams in Samsung’s competition might poach the MSDB’s ideas.

“It’s a safety product for inside the classroom that could be used in any type of school,” was all Barr would reveal of her students’ proposal. “It’s not just for schools with deaf and blind students. It’s not just for visually impaired people.”

In announcing their selection of MSDB as state winner last week , the Samsung Corporation revealed that the MSDB team had proposed “engineering safety desks that are protective during a storm, stable during an earthquake, and bulletproof during an active shooter event.”

The team of visually impaired students beat out three other Montana schools for the privilege of representing the state. That included teams from Capital High School in Helena, Sentinel High School in Missoula and Whitefish Middle School.

Because of that distinction, Samsung has already awarded the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind at least $12,000 in technology and school supplies to assist them in their quest to achieve the ultimate goal – to be declared one of three National Champions and lay claim to a $100,000 prize package comprised of Samsung technology and classroom supplies.  

“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,” a Samsung news release states. “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 also serve as mentors to the students, advising them on how to refine and execute their concept.

“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,” the news release explains.

“You have to have the physical object,” Barr said of the contest’s process, “and if its reasonable you can send them the prototype or you can send a smaller mocked-up prototype so they can see what it looks like.”

The MSDB team has until April 5 to submit their three-minute video explaining their project, what it does, how it would benefit the community, and any potential environmental impacts. Based on those video submissions, the field of 50 state winners will be whittled down to 10 National Finalists who will pitch their project to a panel of judges during an expenses paid trip to New York City in May.

Win or not, simply the experience of competing brings clear advantages to the students who participate, especially in terms of personal confidence. “I think this is a great opportunity for them to go out and learn about interacting with the public,” Barr said of the STEM competition experience, “and also for the public to understand that these students are just like anybody else."