Samsung is a South Korean technology company that provides consumers with mobile devices, household appliances and televisions. Beyond providing people with tools to make their daily life simpler, they also offer products that help enhance the educational experience.
Much like STEM Sports®, Samsung is focused on 21st century learning and adapting the education system to the needs of the workforce of the future.
Student and Teacher Discounts
Samsung offers discounts to students and education faculty. Once someone has signed up, they receive exclusive offers for lower prices on the newest Samsung technology. By purchasing under their student and faculty account, people are able to get free shipping and save up points for discounts on future electronics they need.
By doing this, Samsung is giving teachers the opportunity to enhance their lesson plans. They are also giving students, who may not be able to afford the advanced technology, the chance to purchase on a payment plan that is $0 down. Giving them the chance to utilize next-level educational abilities, even if they aren’t able to pay the full amount upfront.
Samsung and SMART Technologies
It is not uncommon for classroom settings to now include computers and tablets. Samsung considered themselves part of the BYOD, bring your own device, environment. To add onto that, Samsung has also brought SMART Tech Learning to the market. The SMART Board technology allows teachers and students an interactive group experience during their lessons.
“Collaboration by a number of studies is actually the most important skill now that students need as they are emerging into the workplace,” said Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Human Resources officer of Smart Technologies Jeff Lowe.
Through the Samsung and Smart Technologies collaboration, schools are able to purchase package deals to enhance their classroom learning. The package includes 10 Samsung Chromebook 3’s, 10 Google Device Management licenses and online access to 10 SMART’s professional development lessons. The partnership highlights how they are moving past the “three R’s” approach of schools: reading, writing and arithmetic. With the help of Samsung and SMART Technologies, educators can begin focusing on the “4 C’s”: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
“We hear from our educators that true collaboration occurs when students work together to create, discuss, challenge and develop deeper critical thinking,” says Greg Estell, SMART President, Education. “This powerful combination of SMART amp, Samsung Chromebooks and Google Classroom allows students to co-create anywhere, anytime, on a digital canvas, while enabling teachers to understand, assess and guide student collaboration without interrupting learning.”
The ability for students to learn alongside their peers goes deeper than just academic success. In the 21st century workplace, the ability to work coherently in teams is essential to keeping a job and moving up in a company. By giving these students the opportunity to build these skills at a young age, Samsung and SMART Technologies are not only preparing students to succeed on standardized tests, but also to excel in their lives and their future professions.This is very much in-line with STEM curriculum objectives and STEM Sports’ lessons as well.
Samsung and Tidebreak
Similar to Samsung’s partnership with SMART Technologies, the company has paired with Tidebreak, a high-performance software collaboration company. With Samsung’s technology and Tidebreak’s software, they have taken student active learning to a new level.
Students in this generation are comfortable with using technology. Whether it be their cell phone, computer or tablet, they are able to easily use and navigate it. Playing off of that, the collaboration allows students to continue using their devices in class with a shared screen that both their peers and educators can see as well.
The shared screen allows all students to engage and feel like they are part of the lesson. Whether they are the type of student to participate in front of the class or not, the Tidebreak software allows and encourages them to get involved and have an impact on the outcome of the lesson.
Senior Manager at Samsung Ian Hutchinson said, “When they can see their contributions are being shared evenly and it is visible to everybody where the contribution is, it actually improves engagement dramatically. There is not a student that does not want to be more engaged, more stretched, more involved or go on a deeper journey for their learning.”
Regardless of grade or skill-level, Samsung E-boards and Tidebreak technology allows teachers to engage students visually. Giving students the ability to see the lesson taking place in front of them. Making them an active participant lets them learn through a trial and error approach. It also lets them see how their classmates are approaching the problem and learn alongside them for a deeper comprehension of the material.
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow
This year, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow celebrated their 10th anniversary. The program is designed to help 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade students excel in science, technology, engineering and math. The contest is focused on increasing STEM proficiency, while also showing students how STEM concepts can help better their local communities and society at-large.
In order for a school to enter the contest they must submit an application. After 300 acceptances, the first round of the competition takes place. During this competition, each contestant submits an activity plan. Then the contest is narrowed down to 100 applicants who are tasked with submitting project videos. The 20 national finalists are part of a social media “likes” contest with their videos and then attend a live pitch event in front of judges. In the end, only 5 winners remain as national finalists or national winners.
The winners receive $100,000 in Samsung technology and classroom resources for their school. Each finalist school is granted with $50,000 in Samsung technology and classroom resources. But, win or lose, each student and school that participates has the chance to increase their proficiency in STEM activities, learn real-world problem solving and improve their ability to work as a team.
Unfortunately, the application period for the 2019 contest closed. The finalists list will be posted on November 14th and then the series of competitions to be considered a national finalist will begin. Best of luck to those submitted and thanks to Samsung for encouraging STEM learning!
