Honoka‘a School Named Winner in Samsung’s National STEM Contest

Selected from thousands of entries nationwide, Honoka‘a High and Intermediate School in Honoka‘a has been named the Hawai‘i state winner in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest for its proposed plan to address pollution.

Screenshot from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow page.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest encourages teachers and students to solve real-world issues in their community using classroom skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Honoka‘a High and Intermediate School is among the nation’s 50 state winners (representing all 50 states) and will receive $20,000 in technology for its achievement. The school will also receive a Samsung video kit to create and submit a three-minute video that showcases their project development and how it addresses the issue, in the quest to advance to the next phase of the contest and win additional prizes and educational opportunities.

The school dealt with the a local problem—the small country town of Honoka’a borders Waipi’o Valley. The black sand beach attracts many tourists, and as such, it’s being plagued by litter from visitors, primarily plastic. Their proposed project is to harvest the taro planted in the valley and produce compostable cutlery made from a bioplastic for use in the school cafeteria.

Sam Tritto, a teacher at the school, is the person who submitted their project to address pollution

“The scale and importance of the issues addressed in this year’s contest reflect how students are taking responsibility for their role as change agents for the future,” said Ann Woo, senior director of corporate citizenship, Samsung Electronics America. “These state winners and trailblazing teachers and students are taking action to create tangible solutions and promote positive change. Samsung is proud to support their vision for a brighter future and looks forward to seeing how they will use imagination and creativity with complex technologies such as VR and 3D printing to bring these projects to life.”