Makers Making Change at the Skills Canada National Competition

Makers Making Change staff member Kristina walks students through soldering.
Our team had a great time at the Skills Canada National Competition on May 25th and 26th in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

With about 13,000 students on-site, we had 526 students from grades six to 12 build us Battery Interrupters, which will be used in future toy adapting and build events across Canada. For many of the students, this was the first time they ever soldered. (We also had some of the super keen students making USB Switch Testers).

The Makers Making Change team work the booth as students work on devices and teachers supervise.
Makers Making Change East Region Coordinator Courtney walks some students through soldering.
We also connected with teachers from across Canada, handing out promotional bags of pamphlets, Pen Balls, Palm Pen Holders, and Reading Bars.

a student has the Palm Pen Holder device page open as she works on a CAD program.

As part of the Skills Canada Mechanical Engineering CAD competition, national finalists took on two Makers Making Change projects. On the first morning, they worked from our Palm Pen Holder design to create a gaming joystick, and then in the afternoon as part of the reverse engineering challenge, they measured an oversized Rocket Switch casing and redesigned that in CAD software.
On the final day of the competition, our Director of Innovation Chad Leaman took part in a discussion as part of the Skills Symposium on the topic of accessibility in the trades.
The Makers Making Change team works with students at the booth.

We owe a big thanks to the local volunteers who came out to support our team — Russ, our chapter leader for the Creation Nation Makerspace chapter in Brandon, Manitoba, and Tom, who was one of our first ever volunteers in Manitoba. Thank you!

Chad and Russ talking, as Chad solders.

Makers Making Change West Region Coordinator Shanelle holding a bouquet of Battery Interrupters.