Central Alberta students compete in Science Olympics at Red Deer Polytechnic

Central Alberta students were tasked with completing mystery challenges at the APEGA Red Deer Branch’s Science Olympics.

The annual event was held at Red Deer Polytechnic on Saturday, April 26, with 75 students coming from seven different schools in Central Alberta competing.

“Students are placed in divisions based on their grades: Division 2 is Grades 4-6, Division 3 is Grade 7-9 and Division 4 is Grades 10-12,” explained Malcolm Martinez, the outreach lead for the local APEGA branch.

“There are two mystery challenges. They have an hour to complete the first challenge … and the second mystery challenge is also an hour. Students are scored based on various metrics, like teamwork, innovation and the performance of the thing they’ve created.

“This year, all of our challenges involve accomplishing a certain task. The students are given a kit of materials and they have to assemble those materials to complete the assigned task. Some of the challenges also have a store, so they need to buy materials with a set amount of fake money. This teaches them a little bit about engineering economics. They have to use their money wisely to determine what materials they’re going to buy.”

Students were evaluated based on how well they solved the mystery challenge. Teams were able to receive gold, silver, bronze, or innovator awards based on their success in completing the challenge.

The goal of this event is to inspire students to explore careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), noted Martinez.

“As the outreach lead for Central Alberta’s APEGA branch, I give presentations to Red Deer Polytechnic’s first-year engineering students. This last fall, one of those students came up to me and said the reason why he was in engineering was because he competed in the Science Olympics,” said Martinez.

“I believe there will continue to be a high need for engineers in the future from all disciplines, including chemical, mechanical, electrical, civil and computers. Engineering is very important for Canada.”

APEGA is the regulator of engineering and geoscience in Alberta, aiming to safeguard the public by enforcing professional and ethical standards. For more information, visit www.apega.ca.

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