Science olympics bring fun twist to learning
A group of children got to compete in a series of mechanically difficult and thought-provoking tasks, for a chance to take home a gold medal Saturday.
The day was the first annual Science Olympics, held by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta at Medicine Hat College. Organizer Randi Buchner says the event was to get kids thinking in different ways than normal.
“The day is about kids from Grades 4-6 coming out and competing in different engineering and geoscience problems,” she said. “We want to give the kids a chance to try their hand at some challenges they probably wouldn’t be normally facing in their day-to-day lives.”
Outreach co-ordinator for APEGA Keely McPhee says the day’s three events will teach the kids different skill sets.
“We’re having the kids making selfpropelled boats, taking part in a minefield egg toss and making a logic circuit,” she said. “On top of making the boat, throwing the eggs and building the circuit, the kids have to make them all work, that’s the real challenge.”
McPhee says the group was hoping the clean up at the event would not be too large, but she believes seeing the trial and error first hand is important for learning.
“We’re hoping we thought of everything to make it so there’s no mess,” she said. “Seeing the eggs break, or the boat sink is a very good way of visual learning for the kids — we didn’t want to take that experience away because a couple eggs would break.”
Buchner says the people of APEGA are trying to get people of a younger age interested in engineering.
“I think you can really spark an interest with kids at a young age,” she said. “When they get older and start picking classes, they can pick things around engineering if they’re interested.”
Buchner says she and the other APEGA Medicine Hat members are hoping to make this a yearly event, and are planning for next year’s already.