From a press release
HALIFAX: Brilliant Labs, in collaboration with the Nova Scotia Education and Early Education Development department, will be hosting a two-day virtual School Maker Faire on May 12-13.
Since the beginning of the school year, students from across the province have been creating, designing, engineering and coding their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Brilliant Labs innovation projects and next week they get to showcase their work.
“We’re excited as the students to host the virtual School Maker Faire next week” shared Sarah Ryan, Lead Program Specialist for Nova Scotia.
“Since the beginning of the school year students have been working on three Innovation Challenges: Community Of The Future, Robotz Got Brilliance, Mission: Mars and other projects all with the focus of helping to make the world a better place.”
Organizers told The Laker News that students in a grade at Uniacke & District School were set to participate in the event.
The format of a School Maker Faire comes from MAKE an international organization that celebrates human ingenuity and creativity. Ryan explains, “The School Maker Faire is similar to a science fair, except that our focus is hands-on learning while applying STEAM disciplines.
For example, students who registered for the Community Of The Future Innovation Challenge were asked to consider what their communities needed to be sustainable in the future. These projects are very imaginative and creative.
Ryan explained some students have been designing and prototyping devices to clean oceans.
Stephanine Bellfontaine, a teacher at Smokey Drive Elementary School in Lower Sackville, is looking forward to showcasing her student’s Community Of The Future sustainability projects. Her grade 5 students were assigned projects related to different sustainable development goals.
One group designed a prototype for a solar cell phone charging station. Another addressed the issue of today’s food supply chain crisis by coming up with a business to collect food scraps from the community.
The spoiled fruit from local grocers could be used to harvest seeds to grow edible gardens.
Bellfontaine’s students even created a robot prototype that can disperse seeds.
The Brilliant Labs’ School Maker Faires will be welcoming hundreds of participants virtually May 12-13, 2022. All sessions and workshops will be available to teachers, students and families online.
Visit BrilliantLabs.ca/makerfaire to learn more and register.
