Winning at the Make Your Move Competition

Make your Move is an event hosted by Wise Kid-Netic revolving around girls in STEM. It's held at the University of Manitoba. Participants must complete a challenge that is only revealed once they arrive. There were specific restrictions and a points system used to mark our performances. The challenge was to build a device that would pick up microplastics from the ocean. We had a given amount of time along with limited supplies to design, build and test our devices! There was also one more catch- minimizing the use of plastic in your device. A great thing about this event is that girls attending schools from all over Winnipeg were there and worked in teams of 3 to complete the challenge. Attending the Make Your Move competition was a remarkable experience where I gained so much knowledge. I also received the opportunity to collaborate with others and share my own ideas! My team and I had a completed device without using any plastic, which was a major accomplishment! During the testing phase, our machine collected the most microplastic beads from the pool. This event was for all girls to show that girls can be engineers too or work in STEM fields! We learnt what it's like to be in engineering as a student and what it takes to pursue that path. I loved competing in the challenge. It gave me so much confidence and encouraged keep to keep designing and building.