"$56"-*5 4r/&84 STUDENTS CAPTURE GOLD AT RECENT COMPETITION GREGG CHAMBERLAIN nouvelles@eap.on.ca
pipe and placing it into a drill hole. That practice work allowed the four students an opportunity to forge their teamwork talent into a winning machine with Constantino and Brideau as co-leaders for the first prototype effort. “It took me one hour and 30 minutes,” said Constantino, regarding efforts at the original design concept. That first prototype did not quite achieve the intended task. The team soon figured out that the measurements for the armature pieces were too short. i8IFOXFSFBMJ[FEUIFNFBTVSFNFOUT were off, Annabelle and Avery took over,” said Constantino. McKinnon and Janacek, as co-leaders for the second prototype assembly, worked out new measurements for the armatures that were 1.3 times longer in proportion to the first set of armature pieces. i*UXBTNVDICFUUFS uTBJE.D,JOOPOi8F could reach all of the test tubes.” The team made one further modification to their concept design, adding folded pieces of stiff cardboard onto the end of the crane’s grabber-claw. This enlarged the claw and provided a better grip on the pencils. The team members experienced a mixture of excitement and anxiety at the start of the competition April 7 but they also enjoyed strong satisfaction with the success of their design and how fast they were able to complete the challenge. All that is left now is to prepare them- selves to do it again in Toronto May 4 and 5 at the Skills Ontario Provincial event.
The four-member team of students from Pleasant Corners Public School proved themselve the real heavyweight competition in their class at the 2026 Intermediate SKILZ Challenge. The team of Annabelle Janacek, Avery .D,JOOPO (JVMJBOJ$POTFOUJOP BOE8FTUPO Brideau won both the gold medal in their competition and solved their problem a good hour ahead of the other three teams in their category. “I felt great about how much time we had,” said Consention, during a post-Challenge group interview at their school in Champlain Township. The Pleasant Corners students and their competitors were all entered in the Technology Challenge event at the April 7 SKILZ event in Kemptivlle. Their task was to assemble a working hydraulic crane model within a four-hour time limit, using only the materials available in the assembly kit each UFBNSFDFJWFE&BDIUFBNIBEUPCPUIEFWJTF a concept design for their crane and then put together a working model before the four hours were up. The annual SKILZ Challenge promotes and highlights student collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving that involves practical and real-world design and engineering. All four of the students representing Plea- sant Corners Public School (PCPS) are in Jessica Mullin’s technology design education class. As teacher/sponsor for PCPS in the
Giuliani Constantino (à gauche), Avery Mackinnon et Annabelle Janacek font partie de l’équipe du SKILZ Challenge de l’école publique Pleasant Corners. Leur coéquipier Weston Brideau n’apparaît pas sur la photo. Ces quatre élèves de CM2 ont remporté la médaille d’or avec leur grue hydraulique dans la catégorie Technologie lors du SKILZ Challenge intermédiaire 2026 qui s’est tenu à Kemptville le 7 avril. Ils se sont qualifiés pour l’événement provincial SKILZ Ontario qui aura lieu à Toronto au cours de la première semaine de mai. (Gregg Chamberlain, EAP)
SKILZ Challenge program, Mullins played an important role in deciding who would represent the school. “They were all from different hydraulis classes that I taught,” said Mullin, regarding the PCPS Four. “And they stood out among all those students.” Students entered in the SKILZ Challenge are able to prepare themselves in advance
for their events, if possible. For Janacek, McKinnon, Consentino, and Brideau, that meant they were able to create a prototype of their hydraulic crane to test both their design skills and also their assembly speed skills. Their hydraulic crane had to be able to pick up pencils and place them into a test tube. This simulates a task that an actual construction crane would do, like lifting
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