CANMORE – From robots to virtual reality to handmade prosthetics, the inaugural Mountain Maker Madness celebration brought creativity to the forefront.
A chance to show off what students have been working on, makers, creators and builders from across the Canadian Rockies Public School division showcased their creations inside the Lawrence Grassi Middle School (LGMS) gym last Friday (June 7).
Paul Fearing, an almost fulltime volunteer at LGMS who has brought the maker space concept into the school, said he thought the first-ever Mountain Maker Madness event was a success.
“I felt like everybody had the right maker spirit,
the idea that it’s fun to make stuff and show it off,” he said.
“I was impressed by the variety of projects. There was 3D printing and robotics, and baking and drawing and woodworking and stories and portal guns and robotic air hockey and pet prosthetics, the list goes on and on, so I like the variety of it.”
LGMS student, Sabine Comeau, 14, decided she wanted to make something meaningful. She turned her fascination with prosthetics into a fully formed idea for a local dog named Teddy.
“I’ve always wanted to do something with prosthetics and I’ve always wanted a dog,” she said.
“My mom’s a doctor and I’ve always just found it really cool because it’s kind of engineering in health.”
Morgan Randall, 13, experimented with Lego-focused robotic machines such as a spiral graph.
“Really it’s just Lego, I just figured it’s something a bit different to show,” he said.
“This, the spiral graph here, this is an all original design from me and my mom. We made this without instructions or anything.”
Rob Boyd, a Grade 8 teacher at LGMS who strongly believes in the maker space concept, said he was surprised to see what all the students across the district had been up to.
“It’s been amazing to see the work from the kids that the different schools have brought because I’d seen a lot of the stuff that we’ve been doing here,” he said.
“It’s amazing to see how creative that these kids are when it’s things they’re passionate about.”
Boyd mentioned how integral Fearing has been for the making of the event and also the program as a whole. Fearing dedicates not only his time, but also equipment such as 3D printers or a virtual reality set. He’s also created a Chaos Lab at LGMS where students are encouraged to create. For Fearing though, it’s all about the children.
“I think what’s really amazing is how making and building gives them confidence because everything they do is something new and so they’re trying these new projects, new things, that gives them confidence,” he said.
“So I’m proud of the kids and how they’ve learned and grown from it.”
Fearing said he hopes in the future to expand the Mountain Maker Madness to the high school level.To find out more about the projects the CRPS students are doing, visit www.mountainmakermadness.com.
