Guelph Grade 7s swap textbooks for toolkits in annual skilled trades program

Grade 7 students are getting creative as part of a provincewide car challenge! Hannah Schmidt explains.

They don’t even have driver’s licenses yet, but they’re building cars.

Armed with a kit of parts and plenty of determination, Grade 7 students in Guelph got to work assembling their very own propeller-powered cars.

“You twist the propeller so you can make it very tight with the elastic and then once you release it, the propeller goes – [it] spins a lot and then it goes forward,” explained one student.

Students from St. Paul’s Catholic Elementary School took part in an Ontario-wide challenge that also doubles as a learning experience.

When asked what he liked most about the challenge, 12-year-old Jack L’Ecuyer said he enjoyed the entire process.

“When you had to connect everything... like gluing the wood [with the cardboard and folding it together] yeah, that was my favourite part.”

The idea is to help inspire potential engineers of the future.

“We’re in desperate need of kids who will grow up to fill some of these jobs for our trades,” said teacher, Mario Nicolaou. “So I think it’s a great way to get started.”

It was a friendly competition fueled by the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP).

“We found out that depending on maturity level and what else we do with the students, Grade 7 seems to be the sweet spot right now,” explained Ryan Lawrenson, OYAP recruiter with the Wellington Catholic District School Board.

He said it’s a program that helps bring hands-on learning to life.

“It’s very clear that our students nowadays, because of screen time and whatnot, they’re lacking a lot of hands-on dexterity type skills. This helps them with that.”

But the fun doesn’t stop at building. These young engineers also got to test their creations in a race.

With propellers whirring, cars zipped down the gymnasium as students cheered on their designs. The goal? To see just how far their cars can travel, powered by their own creativity.

“Even the ones that aren’t going to follow this pathway are intrigued by it,” said Nicolaou. “I mean, the kids naturally want to use their hands and build, cut, and then finally get to see the fruits of their labour.”

While not every car made it to the finish line, every student walked away with something even better.

“I think it brings everybody together for something fun,” said student, Isabelle Bedard.