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Thank you
July 14, 2023
We want to thank everyone for participating in our challenge this year. Leading this initiative was a great experience and we hope that everyone enjoyed it just as much as us. Thank you for all the wonderful feedback. We will use it to improve future challenges.
As mentioned previously, we will be repeating this initiative again and rebranding as the MFC Olympics in the next school year. Our goal is to have at least 200 students participate and also involve other schools. Over the past few weeks, we are very excited that two schools have confirmed their participation in the challenge next year. In addition, there was keen interest from three other schools in joining the challenge.
We just completed an experiment with Dr. Marc Strous from the University of Calgary. As expected, we discovered that there are electrogenic bacteria in the mud from Soda Lake in British Columbia.
In June, we took short videos of most of the students with the blinking MFC. We have created a collage using these videos. Video Link
This will be the last blog post until the start of the new school year. We hope everyone has a good summer and is ready for the next challenge!
Invited to Breakfast
July 12, 2023
We are invited to be the guest of honour at the breakfast held to kickoff the 10 Peaks Innovation Xchange conference in October. Ten Peaks was one of our sponsors for this year. We are honoured for this opportunity and are excited to participate.
Ten Peaks has also referenced the challenge on their blog.
The blogs can be found here:
10peaks.ca/blog/2023-case-competition-winners-announced
10peaks.ca/blog/calgary-brothers-dig-deep-into-microbial-fuel-cell-challenge
Participated at the EcoSchools in AB Celebration
June 15, 2023
Many of us participated at the EcoSchools in AB Virtual Celebration. Congratulations to Westmount Charter School for being a Gold School. Very proud that the MFC Challenge was one of the many projects that helped to contribute to that achievement.
Aaron Tan also presented about the MFC Challenge during the event. We hope that more schools in Alberta will be interested in participating in the challenge next year after hearing about of all the fun we had this year.
Inside Education Grant
June 8, 2023
We have just received exciting news today! We were informed that we will be getting a $5000 grant from Inside Education to repeat and expand the challenge next year. We look forward to having more participants and schools join in the fun for next year.
Won the 2023 Ten Peaks Case Competition
June 8, 2023
Great news! Today, we learned that we won the Ten Peaks Case Competition. We are very thankful that the judges thought this initiative was the best among the amazing projects in the competition. There is an award of $200 from winning this challenge. We will be discussing with Ms. Lai on how this money can be best used.
Presenting at the Calgary Mayor's Environmental Expo
June 7, 2023
Today, we had the chance to exhibit our challenge at the 2023 Calgary Mayor's Environmental Expo. On top of having posters of our challenge being set up at the Ten Peaks Innovations and ACEE booth, we presented to a class of grade 6 students who were all excited about what we did.
We would like to thank Mr. Cody Fields (City of Calgary) and Ms. Amy Thompson (ACEE) for the opportunity to share at this incredible event.
Presenting at the Maker Faire
May 14, 2023
Over this weekend, Aaron had the chance to speak to many attendees at the Calgary Maker Faire about the MFC Challenge. The feedback was great and a lot people are now aware of your fantastic achievements. It was very nice to see some of you at the Maker Faire too!
Ten Peaks Case Competition Finalists
May 14, 2023
We have been selected as one of the finalists in the Ten Peaks Case Competition. We are very grateful for another opportunity to talk about the wonderful efforts everyone has put into this challenge.
Maker Faire and Mayor's Environment Expo
May 10, 2023
We have been invited to the Calgary Maker Faire 2023, where we will be showcasing our fantastic project!
We will also be presenting at the Calgary Mayor's Environment Expo on June 7!
Volunteers
May 4, 2023
Thank you to our two volunteers, Haakon Peters and Zhangyu Li for helping us out during the "Cell"-a-bration. Without them, we would not have seen the same successes.
Award Winners
May 4, 2023
Congratulations to all our award winners. Here are the final standings
Most Electricity Generated: Team Da Boyz
Second most Electricity Generated: Team Obunga
Best Presentation: Team Sushi Winners!
If you see any of the members of these teams, make sure to congratulate them!
Feedback from the participants about the Challenge
April 27, 2023
We are so happy that many of you enjoyed the challenge! After reading through all of your feedback, we had decided to repeat the challenge next year. Maybe some of you can help us too.
Here are some of your great comments:
"As a group, we all really enjoyed this 3 month experiment with the other classes. We want to do this again, it was so fun.
We want to give a big shoutout to Ms. Lai, Justin and Aaron who helped us enormously during this time period and let us have the once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Team The Hockey People
"MFC’s are environmentally-safe and eco-friendly because it is made out of dirt/mud. You don’t need to be a professional scientist to be able to create electricity."
Team Sir Duckie
"The MFC project is important because it will help the world. The learning was very valuable because in what we learned there was life skills showed and it was very fun to do."
Team Ramen Ungabunga Gorilla
"One major thing we learned about MFCs are that they are super eco-friendly in the sense that they can reduce waste and create electricity at the same time!"
Team Glasses Gang
"MFC’S ARE COOL. They’re hard to build and are expensive but they are cool. They are also renewable resource that can eventually be able to power up cities. MFC’s like all equipment, will be cheaper and be a more reliable source of energy in the future."
Team The Storm Miners
Informal Extension of Challenge
April 26, 2023
We will be extending the challenge for one more month! We noticed that a few of the MFCs have not started blinking. We are committed to working together with the respective teams in troubleshooting those MFCs.
For those MFCs that are already blinking, we hope that you play around with the variables to see if you can generate more electricity. It would be amazing if one of the teams could break the 200 microwatt ceiling.
Clarification: We had mentioned that some of the MFCs were blinking at over 100 times per minute. However, after checking again with the documentation provided by the manufacturer, the measurements provided by the app refers to the number of microwatts instead.
Instagram about the MFC Challenge
April 26, 2023
Today, CBC released a post on their Instagram about the Microbial Fuel Cell. We chatted about the MFC Challenge at Westmount Charter School. The post also showcased some of the MFCs the teams built.
Please share the message with as many people as you can! There are already 949 likes. Let's see if we can reach 2000 likes! We are hoping to repeat the challenge next year and involve more participants and schools. If more people are aware of this challenge, it will be easier to raise the necessary funds to achieve this.
This post can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CreSJ8fPYnS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
"Cell"-a-bration
April 26, 2023
Yesterday, we had our "Cell"-a-bration, the formal end of our successful challenge. We were very pleased that most of the participants were able to join us for some fun, gifts and food.
We started with an exciting game modelled after the gameshow "Jeopardy". Then we presented certificates of achievements to the teams.
The highlight of the event was when the teams started sharing about what they had learnt from the challenge. Our panel of experts [Ms. Sabrina Hout and Ms. Marisa Orfei (both from Alberta Emerald Foundation), Mr. Gideon Choi (Ten Peaks Innovation) and Mr. Francesco Bisiach (University of Calgary Researcher in Microbiology)] were very impressed with the enthusiasm and effort from all the participants during their presentations.
At the end, we also announced the two teams whose MFCs generated the most amount of electricity. Congratulations to team Da Boyz and team Obunga. They can keep their respective MFCs. Please take turns and bring the MFC home to share with your family and friends.
Featured on CBC Eyeopener
April 24, 2023
Today, we had a chance to speak to Mr. Loren McGinnis and Ms. Angela Knight about the MFC Challenge. They were very impressed with the work that everyone put in.
"I am inspired ... I want to come to the school. I want to get these guys to show me how to do these stuff...", Loren McGinnis.
Readings Updated
April 20, 2023
Today, we measured the amount of electricity for all the MFCs by counting the number of blinks per minute. 6 of the MFCs are already blinking over 100 times per minute! "Obonga" and "Mario TM" are in the lead right now while the "Pink Toenails", "The Hockey Peoples", "Perpendicular Plant People" and "Shrek's Bathtub" follow closely behind. To check how much electricity your specific MFCs are generating, go to this link .
We will be taking readings again on Monday. If you would like to take your MFCs home this weekend to work on it, please remember to bring it back.
Prizes for the "Cell"-a-bration
April 16, 2023
Through Mr. Kelvin Tan, we have more prizes for the participants at the "Cell"-a-bration. We now have mugs, baseball caps, 3D printed Microbial Astronauts and dinosaurs. This is in addition to the solar kits, "spy" pens and multi-colour Sharpies kits that we already have. And we are working on getting even more prizes!
Upcoming CBC Interview
April 15, 2023
On Apr 25, 2023, we will be speaking to CBC Eye Opener about the MFC Challenge and the "Cell"-a-bration.
Mr. Julian Brown from CBC Eye Opener might also be on the judging panel for the "Cell"-a-bration.
"Cell"-a-bration Update
April 14, 2023
Hello again, there was some confusion about the "Cell"-a-bration on April 25th. We hope that each team would create a 5-minute presentation to share with a judging panel. We had invited some very knowledgeable individuals from our sponsors, industry and media to be on the panel.
There will be pizza, snacks and drinks at the event. We also have some door prizes for just attending! We look forward to everyone coming as it will be a fun, exciting time. Here is the link to the form for signing up: https://forms.gle/Di9p96PrM4AroC1m9
MFC Electricity Update
April 12, 2023
Hello everyone, we are so excited to see that 17 out of the 24 MFCs have started to generate electricity! There is going to be a exciting competition between teams to see who can generate the most electricity before the "Cell"-a-bration on the 25th of April. Good luck to everyone!
We are very hopeful that all MFCs start producing electricity before the event.🤞🤞
Solar Club Sponsorship
April 11, 2023
Today, the Solar Club generously donated $250 towards our MFC Challenge. These funds would help to make the "Cell"-a-bration even more fun. We are very grateful to them for their kind sponsorship.
Spring Break Update
Mar. 27, 2023
Over the past 2 weeks, we have been troubleshooting the MFCs. We want to thank all teams that came to these meetings. It is our hope that most of the MFCs will start generating electricity by the end of Spring Break. If any of the MFCs are still not generating electricity, we will continue to work with your team in troubleshooting them.
We would like to congratulate the 4 teams whose MFCs started to produce electricity. Please enjoys your Spring Break! If you have time, please start preparing your presentations. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us.
Featured on 770 CHQR Radio
Mar. 7, 2023
Today, we chatted with Mr. Ted Henley about the MFC Challenge. We spoke briefly about how the MFC works and some the limitations faced with larger MFC deployments currently. It is our dream that there will be a MFC in all homes in the near future (like solar panels found on some homes today).
Here is the link to the audio recording:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d4o4euA34WhnBdxsq6enRcHqv7qC3LCK/view?usp=sharing
All MFCs are built
Mar. 2, 2023
The building of MFCs for all the classes are now completed! Big thanks to Ms. Lai for helping the last 2 classes build their MFCs. We will be going around the classes to discuss how to increase the amount of electricity the MFC can generate.
Featured on Global News
Feb. 28, 2023
Global News reporter, Mr. Gil Tucker, came with his camera crew today to chat about the MFC Challenge! It was a fun and exciting experience. Some of us also appeared on the TV.
Here is the link to the news article: https://globalnews.ca/video/9521624/calgary-grade-5-students-explore-really-important-green-energy-options/
Change of Rules!
Feb. 14, 2023
With the addition of the grade 5 classes, we recently updated the rules section of the contest regarding the handout of prizes.
The original rules were created for a lower number of participants. We had prizes for the Best Presentation, Most Electricity Generated and Most Engaged.
Now, we have prizes for the teams that produced the most and second most amount of electricity during the challenge. Another prize is awarded to the team with the best 5-minute presentation at the end of the challenge. More details can be found on the website.
Building the MFCs
Feb. 13, 2023
Justin and Ms. Lai's Grade 5 class had a great time building the MFCs today! A total of 6 MFCs were built and everyone had fun digging their hands into the mud.
2 Kind New Sponsors
Feb. 10, 2023
With the doubling of the participants in the challenge, we will have a lot more teams. As a result, we needed more MFC kits.
After contacting Dr. Irene Herremans (Executive Director of Nature’s Ride), and Mr. Mateo Sanin (Administrator of the MFC Challenge in 2020), we successfully secured another 9 MFCs kits. We are very thankful to them for providing these additional resources.
With fewer members in each team, we know that everyone will have more opportunities and fun working with the MFCs.
Increase in Popularity
Feb. 9, 2023
Exciting new development! Earlier this week, all the Grade 5 classes asked to join the MFC Challenge. With the inclusion of these classes, we will now have over 100 participants. We’re excited to be working with so many more of you!!
Since the majority of the students participating from the Science Club and Eco Club are in Grade 5 too, we ask that these students be only in the class teams. All other students from the Science Club and Eco Club will be in the club teams. Since we have a lot more teams than initially planned, please do not be on more than one team.
Digging Soil
Feb. 8, 2023
Today, with help from Ms. Lai’s Grade 5 class, we collected soil needed for the building of the MFCs. The weather was great and we had a great time outside digging. We were able to fill a big bucket of soil along with many photos. Many thanks to all the students and Ms. Marceau-Briggs for providing the gardening tools. Look out as the photos will be on the website soon!
Emerald Youth Grant
Jan. 6, 2023
Having smaller groups would allow for more interactions between the students and the MFC, so we applied to the Alberta Emerald Foundation for a grant. On January 3rd, they awarded us with the Emerald Youth Grant of $750.
We want to thank Alberta Emerald Foundation for supporting this initiative.
Ten Peaks Sponsorship
Jan. 6, 2023
On November 29th, we applied for the Ten Peaks Case Competition Grant. Just 1 week later, our request was approved and Ten Peaks kindly sponsored 10 Microbial Fuel Cell Kits and $200 to run this competition.
We want to thank Ten Peaks for their generous support.
Our Site is Live!
Dec. 31, 2022
On our site you will be able to find weekly updates for our contest. You have already found the participants tab where you can find useful information including the presentations, rules and the timeline. Have fun exploring our site!
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