A Grade Eight class project in Niverville has gotten the attention of Samsung, whose Solve for Tomorrow Challenge aims to inspire students to discover a passion for science.
Earlier this month, Samsung Canada announced the 50 regional finalists in its 2018 Solve for Tomorrow Challenge, an annual competition that encourages young people to look for practical uses of science and engineering to solve real-world issues.
This year, five schools in Manitoba were selected to move on to the next stage of the challenge, including Niverville Collegiate (NCI). The other four schools are all in Winnipeg.
“I first heard about this program through our principal, Michael Koester,” says NCI teacher Christopher Burns. “As a science teacher, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to bring some real-life context into my classroom, and offer an opportunity for some really deep and contextual learning to take place.”
This isn’t the first time a school in the Hanover School Division has made the cut. Last year, the Steinbach Regional Secondary School (SRSS) was selected as a regional finalist. The difference is that there were 150 regional finalists last year, and only 50 this year, which makes NCI’s feat all the more impressive.
“When I first heard about trying to solve an issue facing our community, the first thing that popped into my mind was the issues with Niverville’s water supply.” says Burns. “In September 2016, the town was looking to locate a new water supply, was having issues with the aquifer directly under the town—too much salinity and sediment—and they were having problems trying to filter the water.”
Last summer, after extensive public consultation, permit applications, research, and test drilling, a new well site was located approximately 11 kilometres west of town, near New Bothwell. Although construction on a pump house at that location was initially expected to be complete early in 2018, the process saw some delays. All these problems have now been resolved and the pump house is underway.
Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says that construction is expected to be complete within weeks, as opposed to months, and that the town would very much like to get this matter resolved before the spring watering season kicks into high gear.
“Water issues seem to be cropping up more and more often, from our northern communities in Canada to many areas in the southern United States, to many countries across Africa and the Middle East,” Burns says. “Looking at science and engineering solutions to these problems is an incredibly valuable use of technology and could potentially lead to major improvements in the standards of living for people all over the world. I believe that Samsung realized the global nature of our small-town challenge and thought it would be a worthy cause to pursue.”
As part of the class’s continued work on this project, Burns will take his class to visit Niverville’s water treatment plant and speak with an environmental engineer. They will also be studying various solutions relating to aquifers, ground water, and filtration.
“Luckily,” he adds, “this ties in directly with the Grade 8 curriculum in the Water Systems unit!”
As a reward for being selected as a regional finalist, the school has received some cool gear, including a Samsung Galaxy Tab A, a Galaxy S8 smartphone, a Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset, and a Gear360, which is a video camera with the capability to take 360-degree video.
Now that his class has been selected as a finalist, Burns says the next step is to use this gear to take on a new challenge. “We are going to be using this to create a video that tracks our progress through the scientific method as we first explore what the problem is, make some educated guesses at possible solutions, go out into the real world and research the issue, and then, if all goes according to plan, we will use what we learned to design an experiment or engineer a type of filter that we could present as a possible solution. I am sure we’ll be in a real hurry at the end of April to put all this footage together, but I’m convinced the product will be an excellent indicator of the incredibly deep learning that can happen when a school partners with their community and works together to solve relevant problems.”
There’s a big prize in store for the best projects and best videos, with four $20,000 technology grants up for grabs.
For his part, Burns says he hasn’t put too much thought towards what the school might be able to accomplish should they win one of those grants.
“I’ve been so focused on the task at hand and making sure the students get as much out of this as possible that winning the contest would just be icing on the cake,” he says. “Whether or not the school wins the actual contest, I believe all the students in the class are the real winners because they have had this incredible opportunity to do real science in the real world.”
The winners of the $20,000 grants will be announced in June.
