Using old cell phones to detect wildfires, and planting local species of trees in strategic places, were just some of the proposals pitched by students at the Langley School District's IDEA X Challenge last Thursday.
Groups of Langley students have spent months researching, inventing, and innovating solutions to the problem of human caused wildfires in the Harrison Lake area for a chance to win up to $20,000 in scholarship funding.
This year three out of the seven teams went home with prize money after presenting their award-winning projects before a panel of judges at the Langley Events Centre.
Team Blazing and Team Willow tied for first place and each received $7,500. Team SAJES was awarded an honourable mention and went home with $5,000. All winning teams were from Walnut Grove Secondary.
Team Willow was comprised of Minseo Kim, Arianna Wu, Andrea Ho, Carrie Zhong, and Noah Robinson. Their ideas focused on improving forest management and educational outreach programs.
"So, preparing the forest and then educating people on the risks and the causes of the wildfires so they're less likely to start in the first place," said Robinson.
A main part of forest management is thinning the underbrush, Wu added, "so there's less flammable fuel, to reduce the severity of fires that actually do end up sparking."
Team Blazing was comprised of Doris Du, Susanna Sun, Nathan Cheung, Suri Wang, Bella Lai, and Aarushi Harish. Their ideas also included an educational component, one of which used augmented reality glasses for an immersive experience in forests to teach the public about wildfires.
"The most important part of our presentation, the key takeaway, is that there's a lack of public education (about wildfires)," said Lai. "So our solutions were unique and engaging ways to promote (wildfire education), with the AI glasses, and the program to get people more interested in wildfire practises and how First Nations have traditionally managed land."
As part of the competition, the students were also challenged with bringing forward ideas that aim to minimize negative impacts on First Nations cultural practices, ecosystems, and wildlife. Many teams met with experts in the field for their research including driving up to the Village of Harrison Hot Springs to gain insights from Mayor Fred Talen, who was also on the judging panel. Other judges included Kwantlen First Nation education coordinator Carrie Antone; FORED BC Society executive director Cheryl Ziola; Township of Langley Firefighters president Jordan Sparrow; and Bradley Warnock, a wildfire technician with BC Wildlife Service and the Ministry of Forests.
"I love that it's teaching collaboration and team-building skills," said Sandra Averill, district teacher of applied design, skills and technologies. "It's something everybody needs for the future."
"Collaboration is such a hard skill to learn. They collaborated with their team for five months - that's a long time," she added. "They learned different project roles, and I think those things were new for the teams, so to see that they were all able to succeed over five months is amazing."
For Averill the event is bittersweet, as it will be her last one due to her expected retirement at the end of this school year. She has been the lead organizer since the first one was held in 2019.
"I love it so much because it gives students a voice," she said. "We have industry judges - people who are doing the work that these kids are trying to find solutions for, so seeing that impact on the students, they know My ideas are being heard.' So that student voice is just amazing."
Other teams competing in the challenge included Team Loraxes, Team Entropy and Team Luminous Lakekeepers from WGSS and Team No More Wildfires from Yorkson Creek Middle, which was the first middle school group to enter the competition.
Click here for photos from the event and the IDEA Summit from earlier in May.
