Not too young to change the world
Southcrest students focus on future after National STEM contest win
A talented group of students from Southcrest Christian School recently won the National eCybermission STEM competition and are now looking forward to transforming their community with their ideas.
The 6th grade students - Ethan Djajadi, Josiah Morales and Alexa Tindall - made up team HOT CARS and invented a device to alert parents or caregivers through an app when their child is still in a car seat. After working on the project for over a year, Morales said they felt confident presenting to the judges and they received helpful critiques from the judges at the U.S. Army-sponsored competition.
"They gave us good advice," said Morales. "Some workplaces don't let you take in your phone, so they were thinking about having us expand it to where it would go to the company's phone."
The team also credited their school advisor for the competition, Laura Wilbanks.
"Both our teams won thanks to our team advisor, Mrs. Wilbanks," said Djajadi. "She has a very nice personality and is a great team advisor."
Now that the team has won, Tindall said they plan on continuing to work on the device and app, but they may change focus once the next STEM competition starts so they can have a fresh idea for judges.
"My goal is to try and get to Nationals again next year," said Tindall. "I feel like we have to again because we won this year."
The 7th grade team, Oh Deer!, are ready to take their project to the next level. Aaron Barbee, Isaiah Baier, Dimitrio Martinez and Caleb Cole-Smith aim to reduce the number of deer collisions by using light-colored plants to illuminate the roadway. Despite having a unique idea and visual presentation, the team wasn't sure how great their odds were.
"I thought that if we made it to Nationals, that was our goal," recalled Baier. "I didn't think we were going to win it all, so I was excited."
The group was able to show judges how their idea worked by constructing a black box with a divider in the middle and showed the reflectivity off a plant and onto plastic. Now, they plan on working with Bamert Seed in Muleshoe and the Texas Department of Transportation to implement their project on public roadways.
"When we receive the grant, we plan to use the money to buy seeds from Bamert Seed and provide the seeds to TxDOT," Cole-Smith explained. "They will plant them along a stretch of road, we're suggesting 30 miles."
Barbee explained that since deer collisions are a big problem in the United States, with 1.2 million collisions happening every year, he is hopeful that their project could prevent it.
"To know this can actually save lives from collisions like this feels like a huge responsibility," said Barbee, "but also joy that something this unique can actually work."
The win was a surprise for Martinez, who said some of the other teams had incredible work, but now is even more proud of what he and his young teammates created.
"You can be any age to change the world," said Martinez.
Wilbanks echoed that statement, saying she was proud of the students and is excited to see how both groups will continue making a difference as they get older.
"In this day and age, when middle school students are not typically known for putting others first, it is a blessing to work with students who are selfless," said Wilbanks. "They don't just talk about helping - they put their words into action. It's such an encouragement to know so many who are making a difference in the world at such young ages."