GULF SHORES — Finalists from states nationwide have been selected for Samsung's annual Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition, and Gulf Shores High School (GSHS) has earned a spot among the 300 with the potential to earn $100,000 in Samsung prize packages.

For being named a finalist, GSHS has won a $2,500 Samsung technology prize package, according to a Samsung Newsroom U.S. article on the finalists and the competition. The article also stated that an estimated $2 million-plus value in prizes overall will be awarded to U.S. schools by the end of the competition.

GSHS was one of six schools from Alabama selected within the 300 finalists. Others included Hoover High School, Oak Mountain High School and South Hampton K-8 School, which are in Birmingham, and Clark-Shaw Magnet School and Phillips Preparatory Middle School, which are both in Mobile.

Jamie McClung, computer science and engineering teacher at GSHS, teaches Introduction to Engineering, in which the student who came up with the idea for a STEM-based project that landed GSHS among the 300 finalists.

"Solve for Tomorrow receives a lot of submissions and to be chosen is an honor," McClung said. "This is my first year at Gulf Shores High School, so I am excited to have found students that have a passion and drive to achieve great success."

Jadelynn Petitjean, McClung's student, was inspired by a lesson on gyroscopes, a "spinning wheel that wants to resist changing its orientation," before coming up with the winning idea for a "self-balancing bicycle."

The bicycle will be designed to help young kids or novice bike riders to have stabilized balance while learning to ride a bike — removing the need for training wheels, which can be faulty and cause accidents.

After the idea was born, the whole class, which consists of Sophia Bauer, Corbin Holdsworth, Olivia Plys and Kenny Sanders, banded together to contribute research and plan the creation of the gyroscope bicycle. The students do not currently have a nickname for the project, but McClung said one "is in the works."

The next steps for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition involve having teachers submitting a plan for how students will execute their project.

"The next phase requires to communicate in more detail our concept but also to include our project goals and objectives," McClung said. "We also need to illustrate how our idea will impact our community. They also would like to see our tangible plan for a prototype and how the students will achieve their goals."

According to a press release from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, these plans detailing goals and objectives are due by Jan. 9, 2025, and 50 state winners from the 300 finalists will be announced in March 2025. These 50 winners will receive $12,000 in Samsung technology as well as a Samsung video kit to record pitches for their projects.

Two winners will be recognized with a Sustainability Innovation Award and a Rising Entrepreneurship Award, each receiving a $25,000 prize package, according to the press release. Out of those 50 finalists, 10 will be chosen to present a live pitch of their project to a panel of judges.

The 10 finalists will receive $50,000 in Samsung technology. Out of these 10, a community choice and Samsung employee choice award, each valued at $10,000 in prizes, will be given out. The panel of judges will then name the top three national winners who will win a $100,000 in prize package for their schools.

Before coming to GSHS, McClung had "been quite successful" in previous STEM-based competitions he has entered with the school he worked at in Fort Payne. He once had a team "make it to the second round" in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition.

McClung said he is excited and happy for his students to progress this far in the Solve for Tomorrow competition. He said he is also looking forward to taking a group of students to compete in the ASTE Technology Science Fair next month.