There’s a demand for events that challenge students to solve problems, and a group of friends at Semiahmoo Secondary believe they have the answer.
Grade 11 students Terry Wang, Jackie Dong, Steven Yang, Tyler He and Frank Fei said the Semiahmoo Innovation Club is about encouraging their peers to “inquire, inspire, innovate.”
It’s about science, but not the kind found at most large-scale science competitions – those, the teens say, tend to be more about memorizing facts.
“You’re going to somewhere far away to take a test with your friends,” He said. “I’ve been in science competitions and it started to feel like the same thing. That novelty starts to die off.
“We’re trying to get away from all of the paperwork and go to more of the creative side.”
At Semiahmoo Innovation Club, which formed in the fall of 2014, it’s about using imagination to innovate; about taking a problem and solving it using the most basic of items – such as popsicle sticks and elastic bands – and teamwork.
At an event last May, the teens challenged “everyone who loves building and science” to build two devices – a launcher and a flying device – which were then tested for power and accuracy through game play.
Next up is an event on May 30, which is a school professional day. Dubbed Airstrike, it will involve a tennis ball, an angled wire and a target.
Open to students of all grades, club members say Airstrike is also their first time expanding the competition to include students from nearby South Surrey schools. The free, three-hour event is to include brainstorming, planning, designing, building, testing and gameplay in the high school’s small gym.
Opening up the competition beyond Semi is “our first step to connect other schools,” He said. He noted that everyone who enters, regardless of previous experience or knowledge, has “a really good, fighting chance of winning.”
The teens say the expansion is also an effort to recruit new members to the club; to ensure its events and legacy continues. Their goal is to see it become a credit program.
The club has already grown since its inception, from a team of three to a core group of 10 backed by school funding. When no events are in the works, meetings focus on finding and solving problems that exist within the school. One issue the students worked on last year aimed to increase security of gym lockers.
“It’s all about ideas,” Dong said.
Fei agreed, noting it’s “possible to do incredible things with limited resources.”
He (Tyler) described it as “science with a cause.”
“We want to help students realize they have an amazing amount of potential,” he said.
“You don’t have to be an academic genius to change the world. You just have to take the step and create.”
For more information or to sign up for the Airstrike event, visit innovatesemi.com