MUSCATINE and WILTON, Iowa–Young engineers and scientists can make their local communities and the world a better place in almost endless ways. To encourage creative problem solving, the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest invites students from across the country to develop ideas for inventions they could make that could solve real problems in their communities and gives one national winner the opportunity to have a prototype built. This year, students at both Susan Clark Junior High School and Wilton Junior-Senior High School have placed as state finalists, making it into the first round of competition and positioning themselves to win additional prizes and recognition for their school.

At Wilton Junior-Senior High School, agriculture teachers Joshua Day and Olivia Sippy have encouraged students on the FFA Advisory Board to take the lead and identify a problem that agriculture students could work to solve for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Challenge. Based on their experiences working on the FFA farm, students would like to try and develop a device that could prevent grain spillage when harvesting crops. “Through our coursework and our crops class, we were harvesting on the farm and some of them noticed that it was overshooting the wagon,” Day observed. Though students have not finalized their plans yet, Day says they will come up with ideas for either a sensor or a notification light to add to grain harvesting equipment or tractors to let farmers know they have lined their grain wagons up correctly.

Meanwhile, at Susan Clark Junior High School, science teacher Pam Joslyn has selected ecology and sustainability as the foci for her students’ project and will encourage them to choose a project that makes a difference locally, such as improving air quality or protecting area wildlife. A second year state finalist for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest, Joslyn also wants her students to really bring their project to life by telling the story of the problem represented by their data and the solution their creation would provide. “Last year, I didn’t have them focus as much on the storytelling and video, and this year I want them to focus on that storytelling and communication piece,” she explained.

Though their projects differ significantly, both Joslyn and Day feel pleased that their students placed as state finalists, which will earn their schools prizes, and excited to see if they will continue on and place as state winners, national winners, or Sustainability Innovation Award winners. “I’m honored that we get to do it again,” said Joslyn. “They’re just a great group of kids and they work really, really hard.”

“Were excited just because as a finalist, we get $2,500 and some Samsung Tech we can use in our ag classes,” stated Day.