St Mary's Catholic School student Brooklyn Johns recognised for creative problem solving

Brooklyn Johns, 11, from St Mary's Catholic School getting his prize in the Samsung's Solve For Tomorrow 2022 competition.

Brooklyn Johns, 11, from St Mary's Catholic School was thrilled to be recognised with a highly commended title in a competition for his creative problem solving.

His entry Brooklyn's Nighttime Heroes secured the title and a prize of Samsung tech in Samsung's Solve For Tomorrow 2022 competition.

Delivered in partnership with Motat, Solve for Tomorrow is a celebration of young people using design thinking and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Maths) to innovate and solve issues in their communities – helping to change the world for good.

Brooklyn says his entry was a wrist strap with a magnet inside, with an identical one that could be adjusted and put around a child's favourite teddy or toy, so when they went to sleep they did not have to worry about where their teddy went when sleeping.

Brooklyn says he was very happy when he received a highly commended title at the ceremony in Auckland - "It was very exciting."

He found the process of putting his entry together fun, and he got to do lots of different things he hadn't done before.

The hardest parts were coming up with ideas and making the strap, he says.

Brooklyn says he would like to join Solve for Tomorrow again in the next few years, and that he likes doing and learning different things.

This is only the second year the competition has been held in Aotearoa. However, judges reported a big step up in the quality of the problems identified and the depth of engagement in the design thinking process.

A group of students at Howick College were crowned the winner of Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow 2022 competition.

Their entry was a non-invasive diabetics device, which aimed to devise a more practical and less invasive way for diabetics to measure their glucose levels.

Second place went to a group of students from Mount Richmond Special School, for their idea Kitchen Tools Reimagined. This created kitchen utensils that are safe for people with disabilities to use, allowing everyone to participate in daily cooking activities.