It was been another busy year in the Technology and Applied Arts wing of the school. Students were involved with a wide variety of projects in class and for extracurricular activities. Here’s a look at some of the things that happened this year…

Engineering

It was another busy year for West K Engineering students. Students continued to explore new technology and implement the use of 3D printing and laser cutting into their designs. Congrats to Engineering student Liam Russell whose design for the “At-Home Design Challenge” Cantilever Project was the longest structure, smashing all previous West K Records, coming in at 7’3″!

 

Electronics

Electronics students continued to impress with their creativity and design talents this year. The Laser Cut LED lamp design project produced some very creative results. Grade 11/12 Electronics students created a SIMON SAYS game with their own 3D designed housing. Student Xi Zhu was able to write his own code for the Arduino controlled game. Well done Xi! Grade 12 students were able to finally put the finishing touches on the “Spirit Machine” Arcade, and Grade 11 students experimented with making an infinity mirror with LED lighting…

Robotics

Student in robotics took their 3D modelling skills to the next level this year through the creation of their sumo-bots. Congrats to Carter G. for winning the sumo-bot championship in an epic finally! The West K Skills robotics team worked hard this year for the provincial competition… unfortunately due to the pandemic the competition was cancelled, but that didn’t stop Team Complexity (Sean Koenig, Liam Johannson and Diogo Iwasaki) from working hard from home to try to make a completed robot… as I type this, Sean is soldering wires for the robot in the Electronics Lab!

 

Skills Manitoba – Cardboard Boat Competition

West Kildonan competed in the Skills MB cardboard boat design challenge this year. The competition was a lot of fun… despite the fact the “Cyberboat” couldn’t hold the two person weight. It was a great design challenge and the students involved – Team Hydrostatics (Xi Zhu, Juan Beltran, Ethan Sinclair and Niel Bellatros) had a great time.

 

Heritage Hackathon

This year 7 Oaks students took place in the National Trust “Heritage Hackathon” – an event in which students get tours of heritage buildings in the exchange district and are posed with the challenge of re-purposing a building for a new design. West K sent 5 students to participate. The tours were fantastic and the students got to pitch their design proposals to heritage building and architecture representatives from across the country.

Drama Production Props and Stage Design

Technology and Applied Arts students played a big role in the design and construction of a variety of pieces for this years school play – James and Giant Peach. Students helped to construct the giant peach stage prop, a tree with a growing peach (a hanging weather balloon inflated with an off stage compressor!) and a robotic “Glow Worm”.

High Altitude Balloon Team

Although the high altitude balloon launch was cancelled this year, our team still got to participate in a HAB symposium hosted at Maples Collegiate this year. At the conference, students learned about HAB design, electronics, use of sensors and cameras, and participated in a design challenge with other students from high schools from across the province.