The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) is holding their First Annual Science Olympics in the Town of Peace River next month.
The event is set to go at the Peace River High School on Saturday, March 18, 2017.
“Our group is under the Peace Regional Branch, with its head office located in Grande Prairie,” said Omid Rashid, an Engineer in Training with the group who his organizing the event. “The City of Grande Prairie has been holding this for 11 years or so, but it only targets schools in Grande Prairie, and not the schools outside of Grande Prairie.”
Rashid says that includes in the Peace River, Fairview, Manning, High Prairie, Donnelly, Grimshaw and various others.
He says that APEGA wanted to give back to the community, as they felt that it would be beneficial to the northern region to also hold this event.
But, due to a low number of entries, the deadline to enter has been extended from February 12 to March 8.
“We invited over 11 schools to participate,” said Rashid. “I believe we have had five that have signed up, and have provided the registration form back with an approximation of how many kids have signed up. At this point, we are still waiting to hear back from a few schools.”
Rashid says he expects up to eight schools will be signed up, including Peace River High, T.A. Norris, Glenmary, as well as both schools in Fairview, some in Manning, as well as couple of schools in Grimshaw. In some of the cases, he says they’re just waiting to hear what the interest among students is in the school.
“Because it’s our first year, a lot of people don’t know about it,” said Rashid. “So they’re kind of skeptical about what this event is, and if they have to pay for it.”
He says an info package was provided to the schools, adding it was based on other events that were held in the bigger cities for years.
As for what the students will win, Rashid says they are still working on it.
“T-shirts will be provided to all the participants, with each including a logo of our sponsors,” he said. “We are also looking at providing medals to the students, as well as books, drones, Lego Technic pieces, and other items kids can use.”
He says their decision on that will be made soon.
– Posted by BET
