STEM & STEAM Education
'Making for Good Challenge' Awards 3 Prizes
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/17/20
A
$15 reusable device for blocking pain; a portable CT scanner; and a
device for reducing distracted driving. Those were the three winners
in this year's "Making for Good Challenge," a competition
run by toolmaker Stanley
Black & Decker
and education technology company Discovery
Education
through their joint "Innovation
Generation"
program.
The
goal of the contest was to encourage teams of high schoolers to
explore the process of building, doing and making. Entries consisted
of 60- to 90-second videos describing a solution to a problem that
had links to social or environmental aspects. Judges included
teachers, scientists and school district leaders from across the
country. The challenge drew 375 submissions.
First
place in the "Making
for Good Challenge,"
went to two students who developed a $15 pain abatement alternativeto opioids.
First
place went to two students, Shivam A., a ninth grader from Shelby
County Schools
in Memphis, TN, and Saksham S., an 11th grader from Germantown
Municipal School District
in Germantown, TN. The students won $15,000 and a virtual mentorship
with a Stanley Black & Decker employee for their creation of a
prototype
device for providing pain relief
without the use of drugs as a solution for reducing the use of
opioids.
Second
place, which garnered $10,000 and a Stanley Black & Decker "prize
pack," went to a team of four students in New Mexico, New York
and California who had originally met during the 2019 Intel
International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, AZ. Their
latest entry consisted of a "modular, portable, and handheld
X-ray computed
tomography system"
for use to first responders addressing serious injuries.
Second
place in the "Making
for Good Challenge,"
was given to a team of students from three states who developed a modular, portable CT scanner for use by first responders.
Third
place, which came with $5,000 and a prize pack, went to two students
in New Jersey, for their creation of Blok,
a small device that controls a driver's phone to prevent the driver
from running apps that could prove distracting.
"People
can be in different areas. You can still work and have the same
innovative passion," said Justin, a member of the portable CT
scanner team, in a video
about his project.
"We don't need million-dollar innovation facilities just to get
work done."
"At
Stanley Black & Decker, we are committed to empowering students
with the resources required to bring to life STEAM innovations that
solve today's most pressing problems," said Stanley Black &
Decker Corporate Responsibility Officer, Deb Geyer, in a statement.
"We are thrilled to spotlight and congratulate the 2020 Making
for Good Challenge winners for their creativity and problem solving."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.