Ridgewood Middle School in the Fox C-6 School District is a national finalist in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest, a nationwide competition to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and math by challenging teachers and students to take topics out of traditional classroom settings and into communities.
Ridgewood is one of 15 national finalists and as one of the finalists, has been awarded $40,000 worth of Samsung technology, as well as the opportunity to have students travel to New York this month to give a presentation in an effort to win the competition. If the school is named the national winner, it would win $120,000 worth of technology.
After the presentations in New York, Samsung will select four national winners, and a fifth winner will be selected by community vote, which began March 1 and ends April 1. So, Ridgewood is asking local residents for their vote, which may be cast using Twitter and Instagram. To learn how to vote, go to www.samsung.com/solve.
Ridgewood became a national finalist after being named a state winner. It won the recognition for work students have completed in an elective class called STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math. As part of that class, which includes a community-service component, the students design and build devices to help district students with physical impairments.
To enter the competition, STEAM students and Ryan Wideman, the teacher who started the class, completed a lengthy application process, including a three-minute video detailing the project.
“I’m grateful my students have made it this far, but the Samsung contest is really just a bonus,” Wideman said. “We’re going to keep doing what we do and the technology we’ve already won will help us create more opportunities to give back to our students and the community.”
