ESTEVAN - The students at St. Mary’s School have been learning about innovation and technology, and they’re applying it to some intriguing, practical and imaginative concepts.
The school’s Grade 8 class was supposed to be part of the Estevan Innovation Council’s inaugural Innovation Conference and Tradeshow later this month, but that event has been postponed. So they’re going to forge ahead with an event that will allow them to display their own projects.
“As a class, we brainstormed problems in our local community of Estevan and provincially, and then the students decided to choose what problem they wanted to address,” said Agnes Garrioch, the school’s Grade 8 teacher and a technology integration coach.
The students used design thinking to have a solution to the problem using technology, coding and robotics.
One project is to create an app that tracks their school bus. Another uses robotics for pizza delivery.
Then there’s one that everyone in Estevan can identify with: the time spent waiting for trains. Students have devised an app to tell the user when a train will be coming through Estevan, allowing people to plan their day.
Two groups are working on a follow-up to their Virtual Pals program with Creighton Lodge residents last year. This year the students are connecting with a senior, learning about the challenges the senior is facing throughout the day, and then will make a device for that person using a 3D printer.
“Then we have a couple of students coding their own video game. Their problem is that they have never played a game by someone that they know,” said Garrioch.
The Grade 8 class has 32 students. Students are typically working in teams of two or three.
“I always love giving the reigns to students, and getting to know, in their eyes, how they can solve problems in the community,” said Garrioch. “I am just so impressed with their ideas, and I get so excited when we do work together on these projects, because they are so excited and passionate.”
Students have been working on their projects every second day.
During the showcase, people will be able to walk around the gym and see the issue that the students targeted. The students will show their journals, offer reflections from throughout the design and thinking process, and showcase prototypes for their projects.
“They were disappointed to hear that the innovation conference was postponed, but then equally excited now that we still will showcase the hard work that they put into their designs, and they’re so excited for the community to see it,” said Garrioch.
Finity Bourassa is working on the school bus app project. They’re using a micro bit – a piece of text that tracks the distance for the bus.
“There is a lot of usage for this,” said Bourassa, who noted that lots of her classmates take the bus.
She’s looking forward to the showcase next month, so that everybody can see their ideas and how they turned out.
Kylie Ibot, who is also part of the team on the bus tracker, said it’s been progressing well.
“We’re making sure that the micro bits can track the bus,” said Kylie.
And while they admit they’ve been late for the bus on occasion, they hope their app would be able to reduce this problem.
Sarah Greening is part of the team on the pizza delivery robot system. Not only would it allow people to receive their pizza faster, but the pizza would be heated during the delivery process.
“Midnight pizza gets a little bit cold sometimes,” said Sarah.
“One of my friends encountered this issue, and we wanted to address it,” she added later.
Using Lego Mindstorms, they will program the robot to go places from their phone.
A date for the innovation showcase has not been announced.
