Science and technology collided at Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) national championships over the last weekend, where students from across Canada competed in creating a mobile app for the BlackBerry Smartphone App Development Award.
Three technology whiz kids from B.C. triumphed to emerge as top winners in all three categories: Junior (grades 7 and 8), Intermediate (grades 9 and 10) and Senior (grades 11 and 12).
Wowing the judges with their smartphone apps, the winners were rewarded with cash prizes, BlackBerry smartphones and mentorship with a BlackBerry mobile application developer expert.
CWSF is the largest science-based competition in the country, and has captured the imaginations of thousands of students since 1962 (approximately 25,000 students compete each year).
The winners made a variety of apps for the BlackBerry platform, all with specific goals in mind.
Junior Category Winner: Kieren O’Neil
App: Deciphering Recycling
Region: Cariboo Mainline
City: Kamloops, British Columbia
School: McGowan Park Elementary
People who use plastics do not all recycle it, meaning it can end up in a landfill or cause environmental harm. The goal of the app is to help solve this problem through education. Kieren designed and created an app that provides useful facts and basics on recycling, such as, what is resin code on plastic items and whether it can be recycled and what types of items can be recycled. Kieren hopes to save the environment, one app at a time!
Intermediate Category Winner: Whitney Anderson
App: S.A.F.E
Region:Central Interior British Columbia
City: Prince George, British Columbia
School: Westside Academy
With the intention of keeping drivers safe on the road, Whitney created an app called Tasker that locks down dangerous and distracting interactions on a cell phone, while still providing necessary communications when a vehicle is in motion. When tested, the app was successful in locking down the screen, minimizing distracting interactions that can be dangerous while driving.
Senior Category Winner: Noah Bergmann
App: The Musician’s Toolbox
Region: Cariboo Mainline
City: Merritt, British Columbia
School: South Central Interior Distance Education
The Musician’s Toolbox is a useful tool for musicians of any skill level. Included in the app is the modex, a tool for making bridges between songs, a transposer, for changing chords from one key to another, and a tuner that can be used with any instrument.
The Modex
In the Modex you have the ability to make a musical bridge between any two keys. For instance, if you were playing a song in the key of A, and wanted to move to a song in the key of D without stopping, you would input this into the modex and receive chords to make the transition.
The Transposer
The Transposer allows you to convert chords from one key two another. This is useful for guitar players using a capo, or simply converting music between keys.
The Tuner
The tuner is a simple tool that allows you to tune your instrument to any note.
Congratulations to all the winners![signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]
