Carson City’s Pioneer High School a state finalist in Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest

John Corbitt, a Pioneer High School teacher, and his math students applied for a grant with Samsung during the first semester of this school year. The school was recently notified their application was one of the five school finalists in Nevada.

Pioneer High School along with Reed High School and Galena High School were the finalists contacted by Samsung.

The concept overview focused on an activity that addresses the challenge: “Show how STEAM can be applied to help improve your local community.” The acronym STEAM stands for, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.

Mr. Corbitt and his math students chose to work toward the creation of public service announcements that encourage students to pursue STEAM related careers.

Pioneer students created a plan to utilize creative thinking to create and implement a STEAM community marketing strategy. Community involvement will be a key factor in this process, as students will contact various entities throughout the community for support. Students will create newspaper, billboard, radio, and television advertisements (public service announcements) which will ultimately promote student and community interest among STEAM careers.

Creating a STEAM community involvement smartphone application will provide another level of STEAM exposure throughout the community. In addition to creating the marketing campaign, students will collaborate on the best practices for bringing their plan to life. Students will also be able to utilize resources through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada.

Creating and implementing a STEAM marketing campaign will improve the local community by producing a local, highly skilled workforce in the areas of STEAM. With community support, creating and implementing a marketing campaign in Carson City will be an innovative way for students to develop increased interest in STEAM education.

As a result of the marketing campaign, Carson City and the State of Nevada will see an influx of students pursuing STEAM careers. The local community will extend beyond Carson City to other parts of the state. Extending to other parts of the state will be made possible through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada.

In addition to the community improvement gained by the marketing campaign, students will also acquire knowledge of STEAM skills while utilizing the available technology to create the public service announcements. Technology (hardware and software) awarded through this contest will bring an added improvement to the local community by providing students in Carson City with state-of-the-art electronics in the classroom and at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada.

“Congratulations to Galena High School, they were awarded $25,000 worth of technology to continue the other phases of the project. Though our school was only a state finalist, this is the kind of project that promotes student interest across many fields of curriculum,” said Jason Zona, principal of Pioneer High School. “It’s always exciting to see teachers and students working together on projects that involve technology and extending lessons outside the classroom, especially when it involves helping others. We were proud to have our school partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Western Nevada and are proud of our math students and their dedicated teacher, Mr. John Corbitt.”