Aliens invade Robert H. Smith

Robert H. Smith School experienced a close encounter of the third kind.

The school held an Invent an Alien fair on April 11, with Grades 5 and 6 French Immersion and English students displaying their extra-terrestrial creations.

In January, the students were tasked with creating Martians, Venusians or Mercurians. They researched the rocky planets and studied the organ systems of humans and other animals, intelligence they utilized to design their own intelligent lifeforms. The students then built prototypes out of plasticine before making their main alien innovations.

On the day of the fair, the students presented their projects to judges, younger students and their parents.

“It’s very cross-curricular, so art, science, French and English language skills, technology, design, creativity and collaboration,” said Kayla Bishop-Malapad, Grades 5 and 6 French Immersion teacher.

The French Immersion students were tasked with completing and presenting their projects en français.

“One of our big priorities was communication in French and how to improve that,” said Ashley Edgar, Grades 5 and 6 French Immersion teacher.

“This project has really brought that out of them. It’s amazing to hear them speak French while working on their projects. I’ve even heard them speaking French with their friends at recess.”

The Invent an Alien fair consisted of 49 different aliens constructed by 76 students.

Grade 5 student Audrey Harrison used clay, fabric and papier-mâche to create a dog-human hybrid called Deimos, while Grade 6 students Danica Simpson and Claire Foote used fabric, cardboard and papier-mâche to make a lava-eating Martian they dubbed Magmavore.   

The students weren’t limited in what materials they could use to craft their aliens. In fact, Grade 6 student Sophie Rust cooked up an edible alien autopsy.

“It is a coconut lime cake with vanilla butter cream,” Rust said. “The insides are made of chocolate, fondant and gum paste. There’s also edible glitter. We’re going to eat him tomorrow.”

Grade 6 students and cousins Jessica Wright and Elisabeth Irving created Acidum Lacerta, an acid-spitting lizard-like inhabitant of Venus.

“I showed it to my grandma. She thought it was a real alien. She said, ‘Did they actually discover life on Venus?’” Wright said.

“Sadly no, they haven’t discovered the Acidum Lacerta yet, but we know it’s out there somewhere,” Irving said.

The extraplanetary project came to Robert H. Smith by way of French Immersion STEAM support teacher Tina Hellmuth. She runs the main Invent an Alien event, a competition of Manitoba Schools’ Science Symposium, which runs April 20 to 22 at the Max Bell Centre.

“Honestly, the teachers and I have cried on several occasions,” Hellmuth said. “COVID has been so hard on people, so many skill sets have suffered, so coming in and seeing this just makes our hearts celebrate.”

“The students have truly gone above and beyond. We anticipated good projects, but not this level of extremely good projects.”