On Saturday, January 25, 2025 the BHS Philosophy Club team, coached by parent volunteer Tyler Doggett, competed in the New Hampshire Regional Ethics Bowl and won! This is a competition where high school teams compete in the field of ethics discussion. They are now the bi-state ethics bowl champions! 

The 15^th Annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a national competition designed to empower students in grades 6-12 to unleash the power of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) to create innovative solutions addressing critical issues in their local communities.  The competition empowers public middle and high school students to catalyze change by applying Problem-based Learning principles, environmental stewardship, and social impact entrepreneurship to address some of society’s most pressing challenges. 

Students in Colby Skoglund’s Advanced Principles of Engineering II class have been named State Finalists in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition!  With this recognition, we have won $2,500 in Samsung technology for our classroom!  This award will not be received until the completion of phase two where a Vermont State Winner will be announced and the prize package increases to $12,000.  

Junior, Ruby Dutcher, identified the issue the class submitted.

There are so many cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Champlain during the summer, but the current detection system is weekly and the website is confusing. Cyanobacteria produce dangerous toxins that seep into the water when they are present in large groups, known as blooms.  These blooms can cause respiratory issues, poisoning, and even death in some cases.  Blooms are especially prevalent after heavy rainfall, as water overruns the street and carries pollutants into the lake. This impacts not only the residents of our community, but also the bustling tourism, and abundant wildlife in our region. 

Our idea is to create an app that gives current data to the user about the state of the water. The app will have a camera feature that allows users to take a picture of a body of water that may be contaminated with cyanobacteria. Then, an AI model will sort the picture into one of three existing categories: generally safe, low alert, and high alert. With this system, users will be able to get instant confirmation about the safety of the water. The app will also track weather data, and correlate it to cyanobacteria blooms.

We need to understand the science of cyanobacteria blooms, engineer a software app that shares these measurements in a way that is easily understood by the general public, and program an AI model to recognize pictures of cyanobacterial blooms and sort them into categories of severity. 

We will need to work with community partners to better understand current data collection and communication processes.  Students will then research the app development process to navigate the development of their own application.  This work will require collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills — all of which will be beneficial with any field they choose to enter.

All state finalists are eligible to continue to the next phase where an Activity Plan is submitted that outlines how students will execute their STEM project.  This plan should define the community problem, propose a STEM solution, set objectives, detail activities, and describe the expected impact.  The Burlington High School students submitted their Activity plan last week. 

The Burlington High School students working on this challenge include:  Matt Chamberlain, Scarlett Contreras-Montesano, Ruby Dutcher, Sean Early, Austin Grzych, John Minor, Hana Sehovic, Brody Waters, Finley Weeks, and Lisa Zhou-Hackett.

Other Vermont state finials schools are:  Barre Elementary & Middle School, Crossett Brook Middle School, Harwood Union Middle School, and Hazen Union High School.

The Vermont state winner will be announced at the end of this month.