Elmwood teachers strut their stuff at science competition

Four Elmwood High School teachers took science to a new level at the first annual Iron Science competition.

The Elmwood team won the competition, which was sponsored by the Discovery Channel. They will head to Calgary on Nov. 22 to face off against five teams from across the country.

“We are ecstatic,” said Max Hegel, a biology teacher at Elmwood who formed the team. “I thought it would be fun and I thought I could put together a winning team.”

The foursome took on teachers from Westwood Collegiate and St. James Collegiate in a science battle based on the the popular television show Iron Chef.

Each team was given a secret ingredient before the competition and had to come up with a 10-minute presentation on the topic.

The secret ingredient was the human body.

The Elmwood team came up with a unique presentation that drew plenty of laughs from the audience of 600 (150 students from each school).

Hegel said students from Elmwood came armed with posters and signs to show their support.

Team member Grant Shaw, an English and drama teacher at Elmwood, wrote the script and described it as “Saturday Night Live meets science teacher.”

Shaw was the only non-science teacher on the team and was impressed with how well they performed.

“I’m proud that a bunch of fool science teachers could become actors and pull it off,” he said. “They were going out of their comfort zone.”

Hegel said the team wanted to teach the top five systems of the human body while also conducting an experiment on human conditioning.

“We were trying to teach the human body and influence human behaviour,” Hegel said. “And it worked.”

Ultimately, the Iron Science competition, which took place at the Manitoba Museum’s planetarium auditorium, was to make science accessible for everyone.

“It was to show that science can be fun and everyone can enjoy it,” said Carolina Nario, a team member and math teacher at Elmwood High.

Scott Young, manger of planetarium and science gallery programs with the Manitoba Museum, said it was also meant to inspire students.

“Really great science teachers inspire their students while bad science teachers can quash an interest in science,” Young said. “This was a chance for some great teachers to take centre stage and show off what they can do. The next generation of scientists will be inspired by these teachers.”