Classroom project part of Samsung contest

Whitefish Middle School is one of 255 finalists nationwide for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest.

The contest is a nationwide competition that challenges students to creatively use science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) skills to address real-world issues and make a difference in local communities.

Five public schools from each state and the District of Columbia were selected as part of the competition. Whitefish is one of five Montana schools competing as state finalists. State finalists were evaluated on their creative and strategic proposals to solve complicated issues that affect their communities. Each finalist school receives a Samsung Galaxy Tab, which will be used in Gary Carmichael’s coding class in Whitefish, and can continue to compete and win more prizes.

Of the five Montana finalists, Carmichael said his class’s lesson plan was selected as the state winner, which means his class will receive a Samsung laptop and $25,000 in technology for the classroom.

Carmichael’s class has submitted lesson plans detailing how to address a challenge using STEAM skills. His class is working with the Stumptown Historical Society to examine the impact of railroads in Whitefish.

“We have such a rich heritage with the railroad, so the students are going to be doing some research on some of the things the railroads have done and what opportunities they’ve brought to Whitefish,” Carmichael said. “It’s in a coding class, so the kids will be creating an app or a website filled with information they gather as they go through the research process.”

Carmichael said in the first semester of the class he had students working on similar projects, so when he saw the Samsung contest he was quick to submit a lesson plan. Teaching student media literacy and how to sift through a multitude of sources is a big priority for the project, he said, as well as designing ways to present that information using STEAM skills.

The contest was created in 2009 to encourage innovation while addressing the technology gap in classrooms nationwide. Since 2004, Samsung has provided more than $19 million in technology to more than 1,000 public schools in the U.S.

Corvallis High School, Sunburst Schools, Red Lodge High School and Sleeping Giant Middle School were Montana’s other finalists.

For more information on the contest, visit http://www.samsung.com/solve/.