2023-10-17 16:23:48
Project stood out among the 10 finalists of Samsung’s corporate citizenship program, which is in its 10th edition
Image for illustration purposes only
A group of four students from Escola Estadual Cidadã Integral Técnica Jornalista José Itamar da Rocha Cândido, in Cuité, Paraíba, are among the 10 finalists of the 10th edition of Solve For Tomorrow Brasil, Samsung’s global corporate citizenship program, with a project called Greentech, which works as an alternative for sustainable agriculture in the region. Known for encouraging students and teachers from the public school system to create creative solutions to real problems and demands of society through the STEM approach (acronym in English for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Solve For Tomorrow moves towards the next phase of its schedule, in which voting for the Popular Jury will be opened.
The idea for the project arose from the difficulty local farmers have in maintaining their gardens and crops when there is irregular rainfall in the region. In this way, the students thought of an autonomous system capable of personalizing this agricultural process, using indicators to monitor and inform producers regarding the need for fertilizer, water and other factors linked to the health and development of their garden. According to João Paulo Santos da Silva, biology professor and team advisor, the prototype proposes an integrated system that promotes water capture for planting and an application for monitoring the conditions of the garden.
“It is a project made up of three prototypes: one for automation of the garden using sensors that have already been developed and are being tested on a model; an application for monitoring and collecting data, which will also inform the farmer regarding the state of the garden in a clear and didactic way; and a system to combat water scarcity. The latter is a water capture system that will retain it directly from the dew and apply it to the vegetable garden’s automated system”, explains the professor. “Another important step in this project is the educational part, as we aim to teach people and train them on how the application and the system as a whole works and uses.”
“It is a great satisfaction for us, at Samsung, to observe how the students enrolled in Solve For Tomorrow Brasil are attentive to the needs of society and the planet. With each edition, more super creative and relevant projects appear with a focus on sustainability, showing how urgent the need to create ideas for people and the environment is”, says Anna Karina Pinto, director of Corporate Marketing at Samsung Brazil. “This is one of Solve For Tomorrow’s main objectives: to contribute to improvements in people’s daily lives and encourage these young people to create, research and have fun using education, technology and science as tools to learn.”
“In addition to using creativity and knowledge to propose a solution to a real challenge, the Cuité team’s project draws attention for its complexity, in the best sense”, points out Beatriz Cortese, Executive Director of Cenpec, the organization responsible for the general coordination of Solve for Tomorrow Brasil. “It is a proposal that illustrates on several fronts the application of the STEM approach and interdisciplinary practice, integrating digital technology and engineering with content from biology, geography and chemistry, among other disciplines”.
Now in the application testing phase, the team has already developed a miniature prototype in the form of a model to check the functioning of the sensors and study how the entire system will be integrated with the application. According to João, the group’s intention in the future is to bring automation to real gardens. “We already have the application interface and the next step is to bring this to the reality of local farmers. The system will be tested in the community so that features are optimized beyond basic functions. From there we will know whether it is possible to correctly read the information collected and evaluate the general functioning of the system. And in parallel, the team is working on developing the water collection prototype.”
Regarding the importance of Solve For Tomorrow in the students’ academic journey, João says that the program brings a significant connection between the school and society, using scientific research as a bridge to apply improvements in the community. “Science is very important for the development of society and this initiative is a very positive incentive for high school students. That’s why I encouraged students to take advantage of and experience every minute of this valuable opportunity. As a teacher, I have also learned a lot, and they are super excited and immersed in the program. In fact, one of them has already received a scientific initiation scholarship. This opportunity is already bringing results in the short term, and I believe it will bring even more fruits in the future, both for the team and for the school.”
About Solve For Tomorrow
Solve For Tomorrow has been in Brazil since 2014 and, in the current edition, has a diverse program made up of webinars, workshops and mentoring to help participants achieve their goals by applying possible improvements to their projects. In total, the initiative has already involved 173 thousand students, more than 36 thousand teachers, and more than 6,600 public schools. And, in 2023, it recorded an increase of 50.92% in number of enrolled studentscompared to the previous year.
The Brazilian edition of Solve For Tomorrow has a network of partners, such as the representation in Brazil of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO in Brazil), the Latin American Network for Education (Reduca) and from the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture in Brazil (OEI), in addition to the support of the National Council of Education Secretaries (Consed) and the general coordination of Cenpec.
To find out more regarding the program, visit https://respostasparaoamanha.com.br/ or follow Solve For Tomorrow on social media. The initiative is present in Facebook, Instagram e YouTube.
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