January 15th, 2016
When once in a lifetime opportunities come for students, it is especially rewarding to share that excitement with a school community that supports them. For our grade 7 students, Thursday was a day they will never forget. Being selected to represent the potential that youth offers our country, the students in Mrs. Schell’s homeroom class did us all proud. If you get a chance to talk with any of them, I am sure they will have much more detail and excitement to add to the description of the day that is below.
On January 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Northlake Wood’s grade 7 student, Natasha Alder, in formally opening the Kitchener Breithaupt Street Google building. Using coding knowledge she had learned in a workshop earlier, Natasha helped the Prime Minister as he navigated a screen robot through a maze to activate the official opening confetti canons.
The day began for the 32 students from Northlake Woods P.S. in Waterloo, in a room on the second floor of the new Google building in Kitchener, where they were guided through two activities by some of the computer engineers on hand. They were taught computer coding by using playdoh as a controller, and navigating a screen robot through various mazes. They also learned how to use the computer and a 3D printer to capture and create a 3D selfie. The students commented on the new Google building as an amazing place to work by referring to the bright colours, the old building feel with the modern fixture details, the comfortable eating booths and food services and the unconventional way that the building seems to engage visitors into this Google culture. (Even the washrooms left a lasting impression for some of these grade seven students, on just how technology can even make the bathroom experience extraordinary.)
Prior to the Opening Ceremony, the small room that the students were working in quickly filled with media and other dignitaries, interested in what the students were doing and eager to ask questions. The grade 7 students had quickly become Google’s Junior Coders for the day and confidently answered reporter questions and demonstrated all that they had learned. As the Prime Minster entered the room, and the media attention shifted, students gathered to engage in conversations with him. A number of students from the class commented on how friendly and personable the Prime Minster is (that he was a real person with a sense of humour) and that when he talked with them he was interested in what they had to say and that he always made direct eye contact with them as they talked. Having been a former teacher, the Prime Minister was very comfortable directing the discussions at interaction with the students. After a short conversation with the group of grade 7’s, two students were selected to help the Prime Minister create a 3D selfie. Katie and Aiden directed the Prime Minister to sit and spin, while they captured his image on the computer. Katie was a little nervous being the one to tell the Prime Minster what to do, but she said that he takes direction very well. They were all pleased with the results.
After the 3D selfie, the Google team handed out a brand new product that had never been tested by any students in Canada before today. The Google Cardboard is a device that serves as goggles that create a virtual reality environment for the viewer. The students’ reaction, as they raised the Cardboard to their eyes for the first time, clearly showed the others in the room how realistic the 3D experience was as they entered their virtual world. As the students sat and spun in their seats, Prime Minster Trudeau lead the students on a virtual tour of the parliament buildings using this new technology. He even had them pause for a moment for a short stop at the portrait of his father, a former Canadian Prime Minister, in these virtual halls.
The final portion of the morning was a formal presentation to the public and media in the main hall of the Google building. NLW’s grade 7 student Natasha Alder, was fortunate enough to spend time before the formal presentations with the Prime Minster as they prepared for the Opening Ceremonies. In the moment of a lifetime, she sat front and center with Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Innovation (Navdeep Bains) and other federal, provincial and local dignitaries. Northlake Woods school is extremely proud of how Natasha conducted herself in this role, as she represented the youth of Waterloo Region among the other dignitaries present.
Throughout the day, the staff and employees at Google were helpful and made the students feel welcome and at ease. Their excitement in technology and exploring it’s potential was evident to the students and seems to have inspired them to explore some of the possibilities that exist in the expanding world of computer programming, technology and workplaces as cool as the new Google Canada building they have just visited.
A special thanks goes to classroom teachers, Chad Harris and Brooke Schell, who accompanied the students through this experience and to Joel Mieske (University of Waterloo) who acted as liaison for the school and Google Canada and to Actua Canada who helped fund the event so our students could attend.
For some media coverage of the event you can check out the following Kitchener CTV links;
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=788553
The following comments were made by some of the grade 7 students, the day after….
‘The whole event was eye opening and showed me an insight into the life of a young coder that I didn’t have before.’ (Maeve)
‘This was such a different experience and the Prime Minister being there took it to a whole new level of intensity.’ (Zach)
‘Being in the building was fun, it just seemed so creative and extravagant. The whole experience during the official opening was a bit overwhelming.’ (Eliana)
‘It was interesting to see how all of the colours have been brought into this old building. This is not the typical boring tech office building that you think you would see in Waterloo.’ (Emma)
‘When we did the coding and created our own sprite to manipulate, it gave us a great sense of accomplishment. By using the play doh we developed our own controller. That was cool because we actually become a part of the game system in a way.’ (Ben)
‘It was cool to meet the leader of our country and it was the first time I visited the parliament buildings (even if it was virtually).’ (Noah)
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