February is Black History Month. Throughout the District, students and staff celebrated and honoured Black history and excellence. For some students, this included learning about Black innovation and engineering at this year’s Black-A-Thon.  

On Friday, February 22, students across the lower mainland gathered at Microsoft’s Vancouver campus to participate in the third annual Black-A-thon event. 

Hosted by Ethos Lab and Microsoft, students learned about a Black inventor and their invention. They then worked with a mentor to “hack” the invention and turn it into a new application. 

Students represented VSB from numerous schools throughout the District, including Nootka Elementary, David Lloyd George Elementary, John Oliver Secondary, Killarney Secondary, David Thompson and Vancouver Alternate and Alternative Secondary Schools (VASS).   

This year the Black-A-Thon challenge was to “develop a small and mighty device that stops accidents before they happen.”  The challenge was inspired by Black inventor Andrew Jackson Beard who, among many inventions, developed two patented improvements to the “Jenny Coupler” for railroad cars.  His invention was widely used in the USA and reduced serious injuries to railroad workers.  

Student project ideas included parachutes for lifting planes, escalator improvements, a water filtration system, a stovetop safety device, seat launchers and several unique knife holders/guards, just to name a few.   

Esteemed guests such as Keynote speaker, Bryan Sadler and local Vancouver musician, Ndidi Cascad, captivated students' imagination and added to the electric atmosphere.  

Nigel Amenu-Tekaa, a district resource teacher at VSB, encourages all students to participate in these types of events.  

“This event isn’t strictly about math and science. My main take away from this is the human aspect of it all. Building community, speaking and working with people you don’t really know,” says Amenu-Tekaa.  

Ethos Lab founder and Director, Athonia Ogundele, says the intent behind the  Black-A-Thon is to inspire students and create a culture shift.   

“We want to increase Black representation in STEAM by fusing African and diasporic culture into the fields of science, technology, engineering art and math,” says Ogundele. 

Students enjoyed the event, with many sharing that they lookforward to next year.