There’s a newcomer in the STEM department! Founded last September, Spotlight is a club that helps Saints students share STEM-related projects and draw inspiration from making interdisciplinary connections. Led by grade 11 students Harry Gong, Andy Sheng, and Justin Bao, the club is sponsored by physics teacher Mr. Nathan Moens and is part of the STEM umbrella of clubs, coordinated by biology teacher Mrs. Kathryn Murray-Hoenig.
The club revolves around its website, stemspotlight.ca, guiding Senior School students as they showcase their work in the form of blog articles and multimedia presentations. In these articles, club members explain their projects’ motivation, process, results, and next steps.
Besides helping club members take pride and confidence in their work, the process of documentation creates connections between projects in diverse fields of STEM. Spotlight founder Harry Gong explains Spotlight’s mission of helping club members draw interdisciplinary inspiration:
We’re a club that encompasses diverse areas of STEM, from chemistry and mathematics to game development, woodworking, and much more. When you write and publish an article on Spotlight, you’re adding your ideas to a network of projects spanning different STEM fields linked with common connections. For example, video game design enthusiasts creating a detailed model of the school might find inspiration from a woodworking student’s techniques to ensure a piece of furniture’s structural integrity.
Spotlight is also collaborating with other STEM-area interest clubs and co-curriculars to document their projects. Spotlight contributor Daniel Wong is a grade 8 member of the Saints Robotics Club who was part of a team this past fall that competed against Notre Dame Secondary in a robot fighting tournament. “I haven’t done much writing of this sort before and it was challenging to get started,” Daniel said. “The grade 11s helped me think about the importance of what we did at the tournament and write about it in an engaging way.”
Beyond connecting STEM projects at Saints, Spotlight has big ambitions: helping students with potentially fewer opportunities to showcase their STEM passion find connections with their peers’ projects. Spotlight is partnering with Quantum Leaps, an organization that helps young women develop careers in STEM, breaking gender stereotypes—a collaboration that sponsor teacher Mr. Moens thinks is “a very meaningful initiative.” As Spotlight showcases more and more diverse projects, it will offer more and more support and inspiration to voices of STEM in our student community and beyond.
Spotlight currently meets in Room 215 during Wednesday connection blocks. All STEM enthusiasts are encouraged to reach out to Harry Gong, Andy Sheng, or Justin Bao to submit their projects or look for inspiration!
