Birmingham’s South Hampton K-8 School National Finalists for $100K STEM Prize

The South Hampton K-8 STEM team was selected recently as the state winner for Alabama in the 2024-25 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. (Provided)
” data-medium-file=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SoHampton_team1-300×224.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SoHampton_team1-1024×763.jpeg” tabindex=”0″ role=”button” />

By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times

Students at South Hampton K-8 continue to earn accolades for their innovative STEM projects.

The team was selected recently as the state winner for Alabama in the 2024-25 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. The students received $12,000 and will advance to the National Finalist competition for a chance to win $100,000 this spring.

Their project is Hygiene Hub, which upcycles donated clothing into sustainable hygiene products and diapers.

“It’s a STEM-based competition” held annually for 6th-12th graders to solve local issues, said school librarian Tamara Clark.

“This sustainable initiative transforms donated cotton clothing into reusable hygiene products through an up-cycling process for reusable diapers and pads,” said Clark. “The students thought it would be a relevant topic to discuss because of the stigmas around period poverty and diaper insecurity.”

James Speights is a sixth grader on the South Hampton K-8 STEAM team. (Sym Posey, The Birmingham Times)

“A lot of people suffer from not having the [resources] that they need. One out five families suffer from diaper insecurity,” said James Speights, a sixth grader on the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math team.

Speights said he takes pride in the work by he and his fellow classmates.

“At first, I didn’t think we would come this far. I didn’t think we would be this popular. I didn’t think we would do well [competing] nationwide. I’m just so happy that we did and I’m proud of our team and I believe we will win the $100,000 prize.”

Coming together as a team is what made the win so special, said Kiley Simpson.

The 7th grader said she felt especially passionate about the project’s solution to hygiene product security.

“It’s important to me because so many girls miss school because they don’t have access to hygiene products for themselves. That’s not fair. I don’t want anyone to miss school because of something that is human,” she said.

Kiley Simpson, a 7th grader at South Hampton k-8, said she felt especially passionate about the project’s solution to hygiene product security. (Sym Posey, The Birmingham Times)

Clark said she and the students spent time discussing a topic and had to help find a solution to a problem faced in society whether in community or global.

“The urgency is clear: 40 percent of women struggle to buy period products, and 1 in 3 families face diaper insecurity, spending $80-$100 monthly on diapers,” said the librarian, adding “this crisis particularly affects low-income families, leading to missed work, school absences, and health risks.”

The Bulldogs are already on the next steps as they plan to create a three-minute video to showcase their project for the competition.

“We need to submit a video explaining the hygiene hub, with the sustainability part, once we sub that, if we are one of the top finalists, we have chance to win $50,000 for the sustainability part, or $100,000, which would be one of four national winners,” said Clark.

The students previously won $10,000 in the Altec Innovation Challenge for a variation of this project also called Hygiene Hub, a vending machine for donated hygiene products.

For Clark, this is more than a passion. “I truly love what I am doing. I don’t care if I was teaching Santa Claus, everybody deserves a quality education. They deserve to be exposed to things like this. Learning what sustainability is, how to solve problems, and being more community aware of issues in society.”

This post was originally published on this site