A folding hammock, a goalie pad and a weather balloon that journeyed 90,000 feet up in the skies and back — those were some of the projects students of St. Thomas High School’s IB program crafted and displayed Monday morning in Pointe-Claire.
“The personal project is the culminating project for the IB program,” said Amber Carlon, the school’s IB program coordinator.
“They choose a subject of interest. They investigate it, research it, put it into action.”
For Phillip Murphy, who created the weather balloon, science was his subject.
“I want to go into something in sciences and engineering,” Murphy said. “This is a small project of building, engineering something.”
As it soared into the skies, Murphy’s weather balloon recorded the temperature, altitude and time with a camera and a GPS he installed.
“I had a lot of help from my family building it, it was a lot of fun,” Murphy said.
Shelly Alkoby created a painting of lungs with with 3D butterflies on them inspired by a family member’s battle with cancer.
“I made this originally because one of my family members is being treated at the Jewish General Hospital on the pulmonary oncology floor so I knew I wanted to do something to thank them for all the work they’ve done,” Alkoby said.
“I decided to include de vibrant colours with the butterflies and dark colours in the background to symbolize that through life’s hardships, there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.”
Alkoby’s project will be donated to the hospital and will be hung in the oncology floor.
It was the first time students presented their projects in person after the event was put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
— with files from Global’s Karol Dahl