Tucker Middle School

Dekalb County Schools

NEWS!

We’re proud to congratulate our #SamsungSolve team for being recognized as 2020-2021 Semi-Finalists! Their hard and smart work is rightly celebrated in this national contest to develop #STEM solutions that address local issues. Our 8th Grade STEM Cohort team was 1 of 75 teams across the entire country that won $15,000 in technology and classroom supplies for our school! ...and this is just the beginning! With the help of Samsung and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, we'll be making our vision a reality! See below for a detailed description of what we're doing and check out the link to find out more about this contest and our opportunity to win up to $130,000 for Tucker Middle!

Tell us about a problem or issue in your community (local or national) that your students would work to solve using Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).  

According to the Department of Homeland Security, “human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the United States.” This tragedy is especially prolific in Metro Atlanta (where we live), due to the presence of Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. The “World’s Busiest Airport” has, sadly, become a target for human traffickers, and while figures are understandably hard to quantify precisely, the current best estimate puts the number of humans trafficked through Hartsfield at a minimum of 3,500 annually.  In response, the airport itself, the City of Atlanta, numerous private companies, and local, national, and international non-profits have begun fighting back, primarily with a variety of awareness campaigns.  While we applaud these actions, the problem persists. Our proposal: Using STEM and the Engineering Design Process, design and build a direct-to-victim solution capable of alerting, tracking, and ultimately saving victims of this horrible crime.

How will your students apply STEM to create a solution addressing this problem or issue?

Although this is still an evolving process of innovation, and some details may change as is common during the design process, the general idea requires a truly STEM solution and is as follows:

Design and build:

• A silent alarm unit located inside each stall in the bathrooms. Information regarding the unit, including instructions and a warning of consequences if misused (think fire alarms) will accompany each unit in multiple languages. Engaging the unit will require precise actions, as to avoid unintentional engagement by curious children, an accidental bump, or the custodial staff while cleaning. Once engaged, a silent alarm will be triggered, immediately notifying on-site authorities.

• An Active RFID adhesive stored inside the silent alarm unit, released once engaged. Acknowledging that time is of the essence in these dangerous situations, a victim might not be able to wait inside of the restroom for help to arrive. To address this problem, we will design and build a small, active RFID adhesive that can be discretely adhered to the body, tracking the victim’s location to various access points/readers throughout the airport.