West Minico Middle School named state-winner of national award
A group of students focused on tackling the issue of mental health awareness and suicide prevention in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow competition.
PAUL, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A local middle school was chosen as the state winner in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow national STEM competition awarding the school $12 thousand in funds for technology.
The group of students at West Minico Middle School entered the Solve for Tomorrow STEM Competition to tackle an issue in their community, but what issue did these students pick?
“Basically, we sort of brainstormed a few of the different problems around our area and we thought of crashes on the highway from Burley to Twin and a few other things like agricultural stuff, and we finally settled on the hope notes focusing on the high suicide rate,” said Cillian Dodds, a seventh grader at West Minico.
Mental health and suicide awareness has become a lot more of a conversation in recent years, but there is still work to be done and despite their age these students understand the magnitude of a project like this.
“I feel like it was important because a lot of people in our school are dealing or have dealed with mental health or their family has, and a lot of people have been personally impacted like me. I think it’s a good thing because there’s lots of people who have been personally impacted by suicide and depression and stuff,” said Grace Kessler, an eighth grader at West Minico.
Samsung required STEM elements to be used in the solution and for West Minico this was a paper towel dispenser changed into a machine that spits out cards with uplifting notes as well as resources if needed.
3D-printing was also utilized by the students in the solution and each member had a different job to do on the project.
“I designed the box that dispenses the cards,” said eighth grader Aurora Tucker.
“I filmed and edited [the video] and also took apart and repurposed the sensor in the paper towel dispenser,” said seventh grader Logan Day.
The students’ care for this project was not lost on their teacher as well, and she shared that the kids stayed after school many days, sometimes until nearly 6:00 p.m. to work on all the different aspects and fine tune everything.
“I’m super proud of these kids because they are truly trying to help other students, not just in our building, but around Minidoka School District. Having these hope notes available for students or staff or anyone who could go in and maybe have access to some resources they didn’t know how to access before, might help save someone’s life. We’ve said if we can help save one life it will a million times be worth it,” said Brandi Milliron, the STEM and computer teacher at West Minico.
The hope notes dispensers are expected to be placed in Minidoka School District buildings in late May, and the students who started this hope to expand into the Cassia School District in the near future as well.
Copyright 2024 KMVT. All rights reserved.
