Future engineers and geoscientists put their skills to the test in Red Deer this past weekend.
The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) hosted a Science Olympics event at Red Deer Polytechnic for about 100 Central Alberta students in Grade 7-12 this past Saturday.
This event had been hosted for a number of years, but it hasn’t happened since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s nice to be back, that’s for sure,” said Stephen Hood, outreach lead for APEGA’s Central Alberta branch.
The goal of the Red Deer Science Olympics was to get middle school and high school students competing in engineering- and geoscience-based challenges.
“We want to foster outreach of the engineering and geoscience profession in the community,” Hood said.
“We try to get kids excited about engineering and geoscience. That’s part of APEGA’s mantra. We want to show children the opportunities they have in engineering and geoscience.”
The students were split into two divisions at the Science Olympics: Grade 7-9 and Grade 10-12. Each division had to face two challenges.
“They’ll be judged on how they work together in a team and they’ll also be judged on the quantitative results of how they perform those challenges,” he said.
The younger division first had to use provided materials to create a mechanism designed to get garbage out of the ocean. The division’s other challenge saw students designing, building and testing self-propelling vehicles.
The older division was faced with the task of designing a cantilever structure, which would be hung off a table’s edge and tested for how much weight it could hold. The division also had to design an electronic circuit that would be tripped by a motion-detecting laser.
“The challenges are done mostly with things you’ll find in your house, with the exception being the motion-detection system,” Hood said.
As of January 2023, APEGA’s Central Alberta branch has 93 permit holders: 89 in engineering, three in geoscience, and one in both engineering and geoscience. In total, the branch has 900 members, including 693 professional members and 207 members in training.
For more information on the organization, visit www.apega.ca/members/branches/central-alberta.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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