Students' project earns $50,000 for Springdale school

SPRINGDALE -- A group of George Junior High School students earned $50,000 for their school in a national contest encouraging teens to solve challenges in their community.

Six girls at George Junior High developed a virtual reality experience intended to help amputees. They entered their project in the annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest.

They learned in February their project was chosen as one of 20 national finalists from among more than 2,000 projects submitted.

Each finalist received $50,000 in technology and classroom supplies for their school and a trip to New York City to pitch their project to judges to compete for the grand prize -- an additional $50,000 for their school.

Don't see the video above? Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6btVqRCvp6k

The New York trip was canceled, however, because of the covid-19 pandemic. Students instead made their pitch to judges last week via video conference. The George group wasn't one of the five grand-prize winners announced Thursday.

The students did their project in Robert Beard's EAST Initiative class. EAST stands for education accelerated by service and technology.

They created a therapeutic virtual reality experience to help amputees suffering from phantom limb pain. Most amputees suffer pain from a body part that's no longer there, according to Sammi Beckmann, director of the physical therapist assistant program at Northwest Arkansas Community College.

"The nerves that were there have had a traumatic issue and the brain is not quite sure how to deal with those nerves being gone," Beckmann said. "And sometimes the brain sends out pain signals because it doesn't know what else to do. It's a neurological issue and it has to be treated that way."

Mirror therapy is a common practice which involves "replacing" the missing limb with a mirror reflecting the remaining limb, thus tricking the brain into believing both limbs are present so it stops sending pain signals, Beckmann said.

"The mind is a very powerful thing," she said. "If we can help reprogram it, it makes a huge difference."

The students' virtual reality experience is inspired by mirror therapy. It guides an amputee through a variety of exercises while the person wears a virtual reality headset, through which they get the illusion their missing limb is actually there.

Abigail Eggers, 14, was one of the six students who worked on the project. She'll be a sophomore at Springdale High School this fall.

"The biggest takeaway from this was just how easy it is to make a difference," she said. "We were not at all expecting to make it this far with the project. Anyone can do something like this, if they wanted to."

The group finished its video on lower-limb amputations, but also intends to do one for upper limbs, she said.

"After that we want to upload the videos to YouTube so they're available to everybody, and hopefully talk to different physical therapists in the area and get the word out to them about it," Abigail said.

Abigail was part of another group that was named a state winner in the 2019 Solve for Tomorrow Contest for its effort to make getting vaccinations a less painful experience for kids. That team created videos to be watched by children through virtual reality headsets while they are receiving vaccinations; while a child is getting a shot, he watches a super hero giving him super powers.

George Junior High received $20,000 in technology for that group's achievement. Beard used some of that money to buy new virtual reality headsets and a laptop capable of handling virtual reality programs.

"Unfortunately we didn't make nationals last year, but we didn't let that get us down," said Vanessa Colin, another team member, while addressing the School Board in March. "We came back this year and used what we learned from last year and tried even harder."

Other members of the group included Jayde Ward, Itzel Villanueva, Maricarmen Medrano and Madison Bartholomew.

NW News on 06/05/2020