[Update] Samsung Solve: Where Are They Now? An Educator Inspires Young Gamers to Tackle E-waste

Update as of 9/19/2022:

Since last connecting with the founders of ReGame Inc., the non-profit has continued to grow and make an impact on communities, nationwide. Following its launch in November 2021, ReGame Inc. has collected over 125 games and over 50 tablets and systems. Co-founders Lydia, Elijah and Bethany Denton continue to reach out to nursing homes, Ronald McDonald House of Charities, foster homes, group homes and more as they raise awareness about the harmful effects of e-waste.

Co-founder Lydia Denton was recognized as one of The 74’s “16 Under 16 in STEM” and received the 2022 Angela Award from National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), where she presented at the 2022 NSTA National Conference. She also presented at the Science is Cool Unconference, and will be a keynote speaker at Bowling Green State University’s Women in STEM conference this fall. Carolina Biological Young Innovators included Lydia as part of their 2022-2023 cohort, where she encourages students to use innovation to improve the world.

We would like to congratulate Lydia, Elijah, Bethany and Covey Denton on their ongoing success with ReGame Inc. and their contributions toward building a better tomorrow.

Covey Denton with her children (from left) Bethany Denton, Lydia Denton and Elijah Denton of Wilson, North Carolina. The Denton kids have created a new nonprofit called ReGame to combat e-waste.

Covey Denton is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) specialty teacher at the Sallie B. Howard School of Arts and Science in rural Wilson, North Carolina, located forty miles east of Raleigh. She’s spent the past two years of her eight-year career with the public charter school that serves more than 1,000 students in grades K-11. The diverse student body is 96.7% economically disadvantaged and, as Covey puts it, “we’re offering a holistic education to produce thinkers of the heart and citizens of the world.”

Thinkers of the heart are exactly what Covey and her fellow educators are developing. The students have participated twice in Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, the rigorous nationwide competition that challenges public school students to showcase how STEM can be applied to help improve their community. Both times, they went on to become North Carolina State Finalists with projects tackling roadway flooding and childhood drowning and hypoxia.

To further cultivate her students’ STEM thinking for the new 2021-2022 school year, Covey signed up for Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Teacher Academy, a weeklong professional development practicum designed to build and sustain a culture of STEM teaching and learning. The theme for the third annual Teacher Academy was sustainability – and one of the sessions focused on electronic waste (e-waste).

During the 2021 Teachers Academy, teachers heard from a variety of organizations that focus on e-waste, including EcoCycle.

“I was unaware of the magnitude of the e-waste problem. Being in a rural area, our community focuses on fertilizer and pig farm waste and runoff,” said Covey. “When my son heard that the Teacher Academy was taking the cohort on a virtual field trip to a recycling facility, he along with my two daughters wanted to join. They were shocked by the staggering amount of e-waste created each year and it propelled them to take action!”

According to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Forum, we’re expected to generate total 57.4 million tons of e-waste in 2021, worldwide. That’s an additional two million tons on last year. And at the present rate of increase, the United Nations predicts global e-waste will hit 74 million tons per year by 2030. Immediately after the recycling facility tour, 15-year-old Elijah Denton, 13-year-old Lydia Denton, and 11-year-old Bethany Denton told their mom, “We’ve got to do something to fix e-waste. Maybe we can’t fix the whole problem, but I think we can make a small difference.”

(From left): Bethany Denton, Elijah Denton and Lydia Denton were inspired to create ReGame, Inc. by their mother’s time at Samsung’s Teacher Academy and learning about the global issue of e-waste.

It was Elijah’s idea to narrow the scope of their e-waste solution to gaming systems. The young gamer thought of how he and his sisters can do their part to lessen the local environmental impact by refurbishing pre-owned gaming systems handheld gaming systems, tablets, games, and controllers; reusing parts; and donating them. Thus, ReGame, Inc. – a non-profit that gives new life to old gaming devices – was born.

The Denton family sat down with WITN-TV to talk about their work with ReGame Inc. and the harmful effects of e-waste.

The tenth grader, eighth grader, and sixth grader worked furiously to start the non-profit with the help of an area lawyer. Together, they designed a logo and developed a website to promote their new venture. They’ve also been busy driving awareness about the harmful effects of e-waste via live Twitch streams and other social channels. Both their local community and the gaming community have been extremely supportive.

The Denton family works on repairing old gaming systems before donating them to other organizations.

ReGame officially kicked off on November 6^th with the hopes of capturing unwanted gaming devices as new ones get purchased and gifted this holiday season. The Denton trio has acquired 20 systems and more than 50 games to date, and they’ve learned to clean, test, and fix the systems on their own by watching YouTube tutorials. (They’re also looking into advancing gaming accessibility by building adaptive controllers!) Once ready, the gaming devices will be donated to charities, group homes, foster care facilities and individual foster care families, retirement homes and senior centers, and children’s hospitals free of charge. Among the organizations the Dentons have already reached out to are Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Carolinas and Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina.

Lydia Denton received the 2022 Angela Award from the National Science Teaching Association, and presented at the 2022 NSTA National Conference in Houston, TX.

Lydia Denton received the 2022 Angela Award from the National Science Teaching Association, and presented at the 2022 NSTA National Conference in Houston, TX.

Lydia Denton received the 2022 Angela Award from the National Science Teaching Association, and presented at the 2022 NSTA National Conference in Houston, TX.

“Whether it’s a classroom conflict or the climate crisis, I ask my children and my students, ‘What can we do to make it better tomorrow than it is today?’ That’s why STEM is so important. We identify the problem and devise a plan for solving it by reframing it, changing our behavior related to it, or even inventing something to resolve it.”