Canfield High one of 5 Ohio districts to advance in national STEAM competition

CANFIELD

Chemistry students at Canfield High School represent one of five districts in the state to advance in a national competition.

Tom Slaven’s advanced placement chemistry class submitted a proposal to Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow Contest for a device that theoretically would lower E. coli counts in bodies of water.

Solve for Tomorrow tasks students with solving a problem in their community through the classroom using STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

“The biggest thing is I just want the kids to understand that you can apply what you’re learning in here and take it out there,” Slaven said. “The other good piece is that it’s addressing a real problem.”

A discussion during home period in Slaven’s classroom led to the topic of local lake closures.

Lakes Newport, Glacier and Cohasset in Mill Creek MetroParks were closed in summer 2015 for high E. coli counts and didn’t reopen until a year later. In summer 2016, Mosquito Lake in Cortland was closed for a period for the same reason.

When Solve for Tomorrow came up in one of Slaven’s AP chemistry sections, the conversation on E. coli carried over from homeroom, and the class found a problem to tackle.

“It feels like we’re doing something that’s actually relevant,” said junior Philip Stanic. “It’s nice to do something in class that isn’t typical.”

The class represents one of 255 districts nationally to advance. The next phase in the contest is developing a prototype for submission.

Read more about the contest in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.