Owensville High School wins $100K in prizes

Owensville High School students presented on the national stage a school security idea that earned the school $100,000 in Samsung technology and classroom resources. The screenshot above, taken from the video the students prepared for the competition, shows the "one-piece intruder safety lock" they designed. (Credit: Samsung U.S. Newsroom, youtu.be/eQ3bkoOzrCY)
Owensville High School students presented on the national stage a school security idea that earned the school $100,000 in Samsung technology and classroom resources. The screenshot above, taken from the video the students prepared for the competition, shows the "one-piece intruder safety lock" they designed. (Credit: Samsung U.S. Newsroom, youtu.be/eQ3bkoOzrCY)

Three students from Owensville High School have won $100,000 worth of technology and classroom supplies for their school through the development of a school safety device.

A panel of judges in New York City has chosen Owensville as one of three national grand prize winners in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest, after Owensville's student team of Paige Tayloe, Jonah Hoffman and Trey Fisher were among the 10 teams from across the nation that presented their work at a pitch event in New York this week.

Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow Contest is an annual competition for public school students in sixth through 12th grades to have a chance to use science, technology, mathematics and engineering knowledge, and leadership to develop projects that address real problems in communities.

Tayloe, Hoffman and Fisher "designed a simple and secure door lock to help keep students and teachers safe in the event an armed intruder were to gain access to the building. Because traditional door locks can be quickly dismantled by a firearm, Owensville High students designed, modeled and created a steel lock that cannot be easily disengaged from outside of the classroom. Once installed on the interior of a door, the one-piece lock can be easily and quickly put into place to prevent an intruder from entering and attacking students and teachers," according to the description of the device in a news release from Samsung.

"We're extremely proud of them. They did a fantastic job up there explaining the product," Owensville High School Assistant Principal Kris Altemeyer said Wednesday of the students' efforts.

Altemeyer also credited the leadership of the students' STEM 3 high school class teacher Kevin Lay, who supervised their project.

Altemeyer said Lay and Principal Cindy Hawkins traveled to New York with the students for their presentation.

"They're not coming back until Monday," Altemeyer said adding the school would likely have some kind of welcome back event.

In the meantime, he said the students were enjoying some sightseeing time in the city - having toured the headquarters of the United Nations, and maybe going to a New York Yankees game, among other activities such as visiting the Statue of Liberty.

Altemeyer said last month this was the first time Owensville High School had ever entered Samsung's contest.

He said Wednesday it's been a good year for students winning national contests. The school's National FFA Organization team also won first place in floriculture at the 91st National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis last fall.

As a national grand prize winner in the Solve for Tomorrow contest, Owensville High School will receive $100,000 worth of technology and classroom supplies such as "Samsung Flips, Samsung Chromebooks, 3-D printers, tablets, microscopes, lab materials and more," according to Samsung.

Altemeyer said last month that Owensville High School's STEM 3 class falls within a larger science, technology, engineering, arts and math program - "something we were fortunate enough to start" with a bond issue in 2015 that funded a STEAM lab with 3-D printers.

The school district - Gasconade County R-2 - plans to use the students' intruder security device on its doors, and the students behind it have been in discussions about mass production, he then added.

Tayloe, Hoffman, Fisher and Lay received the award as national winners from Samsung's EVP and Head of Corporate Affairs David Steel and Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship Ann Woo, at a ceremony Tuesday at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.

The three national winning school teams will also be honored at a luncheon in Washington, D.C., in the first week of May, "and will also have the opportunity to meet with and present their projects to their respective congressional representatives," according to Samsung.

A video with more information about the Owensville students' school safety project is available at youtu.be/eQ3bkoOzrCY.