A Wyoming County school is bringing national recognition to southern West Virginia after winning one of the country’s most prestigious STEM competitions.
With a team of 16 students, Huff Consolidated Elementary and Middle School competed against thousands of schools across the United States in Samsung’s 16th annual Solve for Tomorrow event in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.
One of three national winners for its low-cost water filtration system prototype, Huff also secured the Community Choice Award, according to science teacher and team coach Brittany Miller-Baker.
“We’re the only school in West Virginia to ever have won the Samsung STEM competition,” Miller-Baker said. “Also winning the Community Choice Award was overwhelming — not only did our community support us and carry us through this competition, but so did our surrounding states, so that was a big accomplishment.”
The school was awarded a $100,000 prize package in tech and classroom resources, as well as $10,000 as part of the Community Choice Award.
“Seventy-five percent of the funds will go to technology for the classrooms, which allows us to upgrade our interactive boards and get new computers for the kids,” Miller-Baker said. “Not only does winning the competition bring in technology for the schools; it’s also opened up the kids’ interest in the project and in helping their community.”
Huff Consolidated eighth-grader Kaden Thomas said winning was more than just an honor.
“Winning that $110,000 provided us skills that we can use throughout our entire life — how to work together and how to really help our community,” Thomas said.
Miller-Baker said the team started testing local drinking water and tributaries last year to see what could be causing the orange and yellow staining in creek beds. From there, they decided to build a purification system that would filter out acid mine drainage (AMD) from abandoned coal mines. The 6-foot-tall filtration system prototype, dubbed Clear Flow, was built for about $300.
“You can teach this curriculum, but once they see the science behind it in their community, it just sticks better — and they see it now,” Miller-Baker said. “What skills they’ve learned in the classroom, they have now utilized outside the classroom and into the community.”
As well as funds and tech for the classroom, the Samsung competition provided students at Huff Consolidated with lifelong friendships and future opportunities. The group recently presented their project at The Washington Post’s Build America event.
Having taught for 12 years, Miller-Baker said this experience has been a highlight of her career.
“Of all the projects I’ve done, I’ve seen the most interest from the kids from this one,” she said. “They dig into it; they learn about the environmental impact they’re facing — and they truly want to help others.”
This fall, Miller-Baker’s students will continue to research, finalize the prototype and work on the project both in school and in the community as they work to filter out lead, arsenic and other heavy metals that may be in the local water.
“When we got into testing the water, it was more than just AMD,” Miller-Baker said. “We’re hoping to partner with universities such as WVU so we can test water in southern West Virginia in our small communities, see exactly what’s in it and determine what type of filtration system they need.”
Miller-Baker said she hopes the recognition brings awareness to the issues Wyoming County is facing.
“If we don’t do something now, we’re not going to have clean water in the future,” she said. “We need to come together and come up with a real solution to help southern West Virginia before it’s too late.”
West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt recalled the excitement of watching the competition live, and she said she hopes this project and award become a catalyst for other schools to see that the work they do can reach a broader audience.
“I’m so excited for them, but I think on a broader scale, it showed the world that our students in West Virginia are capable of doing great things, and when they’re paired with an inspiring and engaging teacher, then we can not only do small projects, but we can do things that impact our whole community,” Blatt said.
The West Virginia Department of Education will continue to support and share the efforts and successes of Huff Consolidated — recently named a 2026 Exemplary School by the WVDE for decreasing its chronic absenteeism — and the impact on Wyoming County, Blatt said.
“The students at Huff Consolidated are phenomenal,” she said. “They are so invested in this project and have worked so hard to make this happen for their community. We’re excited to see how much further this expands. We have students, teachers and programs across this state, in every county, in all of our schools, doing remarkable work, and this is just one shining example.”
Amanda Larch Hinchman is a freelance writer and editor living in West Virginia.