CHESAPEAKE, Va. - Students at a Chesapeake high school just won $6,500 for using their STEM skills to tackle the problem of the current school bus driver shortage.
Great Bridge High School students, led by teacher Paula Labbe, were named one of two state winners in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest, a program that encourages students to solve real-world issues in their communities using science, technology, engineering and math. Students at Edison High School Academy in Fairfax County were the other winners for Virginia.
The students at Great Bridge are working to address how schools across the nation are facing critical shortages of school bus drivers by creating a system to help bus drivers construct personalized and efficient routes determined by the students they are driving that day.
As the students board the bus, they will swipe a programmed card that connects to an app that will determine the most efficient route to take all students to their homes.
If their project is selected as a national finalist in March, they'll win $50,000 and go on to pitch their project to a panel of judges in the quest to be named a national winner with a grand prize of $100,000!
Click here to read more about the contest.
