STEAM-powered fun

It's May 18, 2017. Some 180 students from across Sturgeon School Division have gathered in the Redwater School gym on a mission of intergalactic importance.

A group of (fictional) colonists has landed on another world to build City X, humanity's first space colony, Sturgeon Schools instructional technology co-ordinator Nikki Woodford tells the students. Those colonists now face monumental scientific, technological and artistic challenges they cannot overcome on their own.

"Now, they've sent transmissions back to Earth describing those challenges and you have to solve them."

It will be up to these young scientists to save those planetary pioneers using science, technology, engineering, artistry, mathematics and the occasional unicorn-branded catapult as they compete in a contest of creativity: the inaugural Sturgeon STEAM Games.

What is STEAM?

Woodford, organizer of Games, explains the basics of the day's events to the kids before she dispatches them to their activity stations. Soon they are crafting food-analyzing scanners from wire and tin foil, explaining cultural models made from papier mâché, and using catapults to fling simulated passengers safely over a lake.

Sturgeon School Division has lots of places where athletes can shine but few where students can show off their scientific skill, Woodford says.

"The STEAM Games is an opportunity for students who have an interest in science and technology and engineering to really explore their interests and have (a place) where they can demonstrate their skills."

Woodford says they came up with the idea for the Games last year as a way for teachers to showcase the educational potential of 3D printers and robots, both of which were trickling into district schools.

STEAM is an educational movement that seeks to add the Arts to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in schools, reports educationcloset.com. STEAM advocates emphasize hands-on learning through projects such as robotics to foster creativity, teamwork, and vital job skills.

It's a very hands-on, cross-curricular approach to teaching, says Amanda Langford, who uses a STEAM approach to teach kids at Landing Trail School in Gibbons. As her students program computer games, build robots, and read and write instructions, they're practicing engineering, math, design and literacy.

Langford says her students' literacy skills have advanced two to four times faster than average as measured by the Fountas & Pinnell Text Level Gradient as a result of this approach. The students are also much more independent, and have even started teaching other teachers how to use new technologies.

"They're reading for a purpose," she explains.

"They want to build or program something, and they need to understand language."

City X solutions

Woodford based the STEAM Games on the City X Project – an open-source education guide that has students use STEAM skills to create solutions for citizens from the fictional City X space colony.

Brett Schilke, an educator at the think-tank Singularity University in California and co-creator of the City X Project, says the project is meant to help teachers incorporate technology such as 3D printers into their classrooms in a more meaningful way. They added the space-age storyline to it during development to encourage students to think big.

The City X Project is now used by about 1,500 educators in 75 nations and rolled out nation-wide in China last year, Schilke says.

STEAM Games students had to solve six problems presented by the citizens of City X. Judges, including Redwater Mayor Mel Smith, awarded each team and school points based on the effectiveness of their solutions.

Cooper Pirtle, Haylee McBride and Garett Biddiscombe of Camilla School have to help Citizen Juan solve a shortage of arable land in City X, for example. They have just 90 minutes to create a model of their solution out of pipe cleaners, tin foil and other scraps. After rushing the supply table, they hurry to cut, tape, glue and accessorize their remarkably detailed cardboard construct.

"The most immediate solution to that problem would be to put a bunch of fertilizer in the soil," McBride says, but they also know City X has heavy rains that wash nutrients away.

Their solution was a greenhouse: if all the crops are indoors, you can control your growing conditions, McBride says. The team gave the structure solar panels for power and heat, a rainwater collection system to exploit that heavy precipitation, and a neat "City X Agricultural Centre" sign, complete with pipe-cleaner flowers.

"This is the kind of thing our team really enjoys doing," McBride says: doing science and engineering and coming up with creative solutions to problems.

It's important for students to experience challenges like this because they encourage critical thinking, Biddiscombe said.

"Once you're out in the human world outside school, everything isn't just assignments and tests. You have to think outside the box (and about) how to solve problems on your own."

Kieran Nelson of Redwater School did just that for his challenge. Asked by Citizen Wen to build a robot that could collect trash from a bin, Nelson fielded a duck-themed model with a powerful claw-arm that instead collected the entire bin.

"I didn't know if we could pick up the little stuff, so (I figured) just go big or go home," he says.

Citizen Emilia asks other teams to design robots that can safely navigate City X (represented by an obstacle course). This proves to be a challenge, as many of the machines veer into walls and plummet off the simulated bridge, prompting cheers, groans and laughter from the audience.

Sturgeon Composite student Anthony Norris's buggy-like robot draws howls of excitement as it swerves drunkenly around several corners before swerving off an embankment and off the track.

Norris takes the loss well, illustrating an underlying theme to the STEAM Games: every failure is an opportunity to learn.

"The line sensor wasn't (distinguishing) between the tape and the blue floor," he says, referring to the guide tape that ran along the course, so the robot relied on its wall-spotting ultrasonic array to know when to turn. When it reached the bridge, though, it figured out it had to turn too late, and drove into the virtual drink.

He speculates that his vehicle probably would have caused a major pile-up in City X, and suggests residents there add backup systems to their vehicles as a result.

"Aww!" goes the crowd, as yet another robo-car drives off the bridge.

"And maybe get rails for on their bridges," he adds.

Mission accomplished

The students cheer as they take the stage to receive their medals at the end of the day. The Camilla School team claims the championship banner for having the most points overall. Their coach, Donovan Eckstrom, grins giddily as he scrambles to snap photos of them with his smartphone.

"Those kids put a lot of effort in, and to see all that effort pay off is a dream come true," he says.

"I'm really proud of them."

Woodford says the kids were excited about the Games from start to finish, and she hopes they'll share that excitement about science and engineering with their home schools. She plans to hold the Games again in a couple of years, perhaps with other school divisions participating.

As for the citizens of City X, Eckstrom predicts that they will soon be founding City Y and City Z thanks to the help of these student scientists.

"These kids are saving the day!"