Westhill Wins National STEM Award

Westhill School District is proud to announce that our High School Technology Education department has been named a Promising STEM Innovation Recipient in the 2025-2026 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest. This prestigious recognition comes with a $1,000 prize package, which will help launch an ambitious new student project designed to solve a unique challenge right here in our courtyard.

Westhill High School has a unique visitor to our community; a family of ducks nests in our courtyard every year. While this is a morale booster for the school, it creates challenges regarding animal welfare and resource management. Currently, staff must volunteer during the summer to provide food and water, and during the school year, the ducklings are often vulnerable to aerial predators like hawks.

The "Legend" Behind the Project

For those in the community who haven't heard the story, the spark for this high-tech solution actually came from a distinctly low-tech moment last year. Distressed by the hawks targeting the ducklings, Principal Dolan took matters into his own hands, literally. He was spotted perched on the roof of the high school, personally trying to wave off the hawks to protect the ducklings. While we admire his dedication to our feathered friends, the Technology Department realized that having our principal act as a human scarecrow on the roof wasn't exactly a sustainable (or safe) long-term strategy. We decided it was time to build something better.

High-Tech Habitat Management

With this new funding, students will begin work on the "Guardian Station," a proposed all-weather habitat management system. The project is designed to be a full STEM application where students will turn the classroom into a real Research & Development lab.

The plan involves breaking students into three specialized teams to execute the solution:

• The Fabrication Team will use the woods and metals shop to design and fabricate the durable main structure of the station.

• The Electronics Team will 3D print custom mechanical parts, such as a motor-driven auger for food dispensing, and code micro controllers to manage feeding schedules and water levels.

• The AI Team will tackle the most advanced aspect of the project: training a custom machine-learning model to identify predators via camera. The goal is for the AI to trigger a harmless deterrent, such as a reflector or sprinkler blast, to scare away hawks without harming them or the ducks.

Once built, this project aims to free up teaching staff's summer time, and keep Mr. Dolan off the roof, while creating a safer environment for the ducks. On a deeper level, it will show students how skills ranging from welding to coding can be used to creatively and compassionately solve real-world problems.

Congratulations to our innovative students and the Technology department for this well-deserved recognition!